wild/nhl

The Wild announced the Nate Prosser deal this morning. The rookie defenseman gets a two-year, one-way deal worth $1.65 million. That's an $825,000 salary cap hit starting next year.

Prosser, 25, has six assists this season in 23 games with the Wild. He's been back and forth between the NHL and the AHL's Houston Aeros this season because he doesn't have to clear waivers to be sent down. The team is 14-7-2 when he is in the lineup.

He was signed as a free agent out of Colorado College in March, 2010.

UPDATE:

Kent Youngblood here. I was at practice today, with Mike already in Columbus. 

It was funny the amount of good-natured grief Prosser was getting from his teammates in the wake of the signing. One teammate noted that cameramen would need wide-angle lenses from now on to capture Prosser's head. Josh Harding asked if Prosser would be on the team's charter to Columbus or if he was taking a private jet. 

All Prosser did was smile. "It' s a good day," he said. "It's a good day for me and my family. I was able to celebrate with them yesterday. There was a lot of excitement. I mean, it's my first time signing a one-way deal like this. it's a dream come true."

Prosser has paid his dues to get to this point. He's been up and down from Houston a number of times. Enough that Prosser banked enough frequent flier miles to fly his wife, Brittani, up from Houston each time he was called up.

Prosser, who is from Elk River, said signing with the Wild is a perfect scenario. And, knowing it's a one-way deal gives him -- and his family -- a feeling of security Prosser said was a relief.

it's also good timing. Prosser said he and his wife are expecting their first child in August. By that time the Prossers will have been able buy a home in which to welcome the baby. Prosser has been holding off on buying a house up here because he didn't want to jinx anything. 

His next goal? "Hopefully with that first NHL goal," Prosser said. "That's what my next goal is. I guess you could say."

Wild coach Mike Yeo announced the deal to the team at center ice during practice. Here's what Yeo had to say after practice was over: 

"Being around him for two years now, you have to really like his attitude," Yeo said. "And what he brings to the table, both as a person and especially the way he's contributing and the way he's improved over the better part of a year and a half."

In other news:

--Mikko Koivu practiced today, wearing a green sweater that signified he could engage in some contact. After doing some work in battle drills, he said he felt good. But neither Koivu nor Yeo would say whether Koivu would play in  Columbus tomorrow, though he will travel with the team. "He had a good practice today, and we have to see how he feels through the rest of this day and into tomorrow," Yeo said.

 --Here are the lines at practice today: Brodziak with Johnson and Heatley; Cullen with Clutterbuck and McMillan; Christensen with Setoguchi and Powe; Peters with Kassian, Ortmeyer and Staubitz.

That's about it for now. Mike will be with the team tomorrow

Early morning update: According to sources, the Wild is close to signing defenseman Nate Prosser to a two-year contract extension. Prosser's played consistently well all year, and during his four callups, seems to have gotten better each occasion.

The Wild is 14-7-2 with the 25-year-old Elk River native in the lineup this year. He makes subtle little plays to alleviate pressure, is great positionally, make a great first pass out of the zone and plays with an edge.

Mike Yeo last month: "He's a, I don't want to swear, he's a jerk out there and I like that because he's smart about it He's not doing it to [Edmonton enforcer] Darcy Hordichuk. He's doing it to [Edmonton scorers] Taylor Hall and Ryan Smyth. If he can get them off their game a little bit, then more power to us."

The Wild signed Prosser in 2010 out of Colorado College. He would have become a restricted free agent July 1.

Prosser's only bounced back and forth this year because he doesn't require waivers to get to Houston. That's his lot in life. All players go through it. Hey, and he's gotten a ton of frequent flyer miles out of it.   

But he'll be in great position to make next year's roster, and if he has a good summer, justifiably so.

One of these days, I swear to you, I will witness a Wild victory in Dallas.
I just have to! Maybe it’ll happen when I’m back here in two or three weeks, but the winless streak here since March 21, 2003, hit 15 games (0-10-5) with tonight’s 2-1 shootout loss.
Of course, the Wild certainly gave it a terrific try.
If you watched the game, you know the Wild played a heck of a game, a heck of a complete game, in every area BUT the power play, which was beyond awful.
Blanked on four chances. The first three? Don’t think they even had a scoring chance. Then, hustle by Dany Heatley and Kyle Brodziak drew a hooking penalty from Sheldon Souray with a 1:07 left, but the Wild couldn’t win it during that 1:07 or the 53-second 4-on-3 to begin overtime.
The Wild outshot the Stars 34-26, but Kari Lehtonen stoned the Wild throughout, particularly Heatley, who had eight shots, and every one I think was a legit scoring chance. He was awesome.
So was that whole line with Brodziak and Nick Johnson. They’ve been so good the last five games, have spent so much time in the offensive zone that it certainly seems like Mike Yeo will keep the line intact once Mikko Koivu returns.
That certainly sounds like it could happen Tuesday in Columbus depending on what the doctors say.
Heatley-Brodziak-Johnson buzzed all game. Late in the second, Johnson poked a puck into the offensive zone for Heatley, who set up Brodziak all alone with all the time in the world. But Brodziak, maybe because he was tired late in the shift, went from having a million options to suddenly having the puck on his backhand at a tight angle.
Lehtonen made the save.
But Brodziak made amends early in the third. Johnson’s suffocating forecheck caused Jake Dowell to turn the puck over. Brodziak skated in alone, made a pump fake with his head, got Lehtonen to commit and created an open net for himself.
Brodziak buried it for his 15th goal (one off his career-high) to extend his point streak to a career-long six games.
The reason I hate shootouts is because if you lose them, it leaves sometimes an unfair bitter taste in your mouth and sometimes if you win them, it leaves sometimes an unfair sense of glee.
The reality is the Wild completely outplayed the Stars tonight, especially at 5-on-5, yet left the building having left a point and not feeling satisfied. That’s why the Wild’s got to start winning these shootouts.
After starting the season 4-1 in shootouts, the Wild has lost five of six. That’s massive when you’re sitting in eighth place – two points behind seventh-place Los Angeles and two ahead of ninth-place Dallas.
Shootout specialist Erik Christensen could have made for a really good story. In his debut though, he was stopped by Lehtonen after a nice move. Matt Cullen scored, then Jared Spurgeon missed.
I’m shocked how on Twitter so many people were going nuts that Spurgeon got the nod. Kent Youngblood wrote on the blog and in the paper two weeks ago that after a terrific move by Spurgeon in the practice after the Wild’s last shootout loss in St. Louis that Yeo hinted he would remember that for the next shootout.
The Wild practices shootouts all the time in practice, and that’s how it works.
And after losing four of the five before tonight, something had to change. Heatley has missed three in a row, and the last in ugly fashion, and he’s 5 for 30 in his career. Devin Setoguchi has missed two in a row, is 3 for 10 in his career and frankly, he doesn’t even get too many scoring chances in games anymore.
He has two goals in 11 games since returning from a knee injury Jan. 4.
I would have tried Brodziak over those two anyway. First of all, he’s playing with confidence. Second of all, he scored on a breakaway in this same game. And third of all, he scored the winning goal in Edmonton during his only shootout attempt this season.
The bigger issue is Niklas Backstrom.
Look, I get Jamie Benn can make any goalie look silly, and he was awesome in the skills competition last weekend. I get Loui Eriksson is sickly skilled too.
But Backstrom struggles in shootouts. He has for six years. Actually he did have one bounceback year, but then he’s reverted. He’s 15-28 all-time with the NHL’s worst all-time save percentage (.563). This year he is 3-4 in shootouts with a .450 save percentage.
I am not a proponent at all of pulling Backstrom for an ice-cold Josh Harding. I’ve said that for years. I think it puts Harding at injury-risk and even more importantly, it puts Backstrom’s head at risk.
He’s played great the last two games. Goalies have fragile psyches. I don’t think you get inside a goalie’s head and do something like that. It’s humiliating.
Nevertheless, I asked the question many of you always want me asking: Would you, Mike Yeo, pull Backstrom for Harding in the shootout (by the way, Harding us 7-6 all time with a .690 save percentage)?
“The one thing with that, Backy is playing so well right now,” Yeo said. “I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. But we’re going to consider anything at this point.”
It would be an amusing sight by the way if Harding was like a placekicker in football and when a game goes to overtime, he goes to the back runway and starts practicing quick glove saves and sprawls across the crease.
The power play. Just awful.
It was maddening how bad the Wild’s passing was, particularly the fellows at the point. Passes were either off the mark to each other or not fast enough to blast one-timers. Marek Zidlicky and Spurgeon were the chief culprits.
Yeo sometimes defends the power play. Not tonight. It could have won the game many times.
“That was not good,” the coach said. “I mean, we’re not even generating anything out there. We’re not willing to shoot the puck. It took a step backwards.”
Zidlicky actually didn’t play a bad game, but man, the guy won’t shoot.
Overall though, good game. And overall, the Wild’s 3-1-1 in its past five. It’s a shame they blew the Nashville game. They could play that same game 100 more times and it wouldn’t cave like that again. The reason I say it’s a shame is because the Wild played well, meaning overall, that’s five good games in a row.
Slowly, they’re getting their game back with Koivu knocking on the door to come back.
So that’s good.
Here’s the deal. I’m flying from here to Colorado. Yeo said it was 50-50 if he practices the team on Super Bowl Sunday.
If he practices the team, Youngblood will blog. If he doesn’t, Youngblood will blog after Monday’s practice. Barring news, you’ll next hear from me Tuesday from Columbus (other than a story in Monday’s paper, most likely, on the Brodziak line). And of course, you can always find my absolutely hysterical quips and insights and observations on twitter at www.twitter.com/russostrib.
Enjoy the Super Bowl. Go Giants!

Afternoon from chilly Dallas, where I'm lethargic. Thought you'd want to know.

Also had a harrowing plane experience here last night. After holding for awhile over Lubbock, Texas, because of weather and the pilot getting on the loud speaker telling us he "thinks" we have enough fuel to keep circling, we were sent on our merry way into Dallas.

On United, Channel 9 allows you to listen in to the cockpit and its conversations with Air Traffic Control. During our descent, every plane in front of us reported continuous moderate turbulence to ATC. They weren't kidding. We bounced around the sky like few other rides of my life.

We were diving and jerking and hitting air pockets. It was crazy stuff. Finally as we hit final, a few thousand feet off the ground, we had a bird strike. The plane banked a bit left, started revving and the pilot immediately reported it to ATC. We landed hard but safely. Was an excruciating final 15 minutes.

Even two off-duty pilots who sat in the seats behind me were going on and on about the approach after we landed. The pilot came on and apologized.

All in all, difficult day on the beat. Flight cancellation, pulled off the active runway in Denver just as we were going to take off because of a warning light, one wheel popped off my computer bag, my hotel couldn't find my reservation, then put me into a room that was occupied. Fun day.

Thank goodness this stretch of 20 of 29 games on the road that began in late November ends Tuesday in Columbus.

I'm road weary.

Marek Zidlicky will be unleashed tonight against the Dallas Stars. Clayton Stoner is limping around pretty good and will miss tonight's game. Zidlicky, scratched four games in a row and having made his displeasure heard, will be back and reunited with former partner Greg Zanon.

Mike Lundin is scratched, along with Matt Kassian, as Brad Staubitz returns after being scratched in four in a row. Yeo explained that Kassian couldn't find any customers last time the two teams played (i.e. Steve Ott).

Erik Christensen will wear No. 26 and debut between Darroll Powe and Carson McMillan. Yeo said he'll pay attention to Christensen to see if he needs to manage his ice time and playing the system the right way. After all, he hasn't played an NHL contest since Dec. 17.

The Wild catches Dallas without Brenden Morrow. Former Wild Eric Nystrom takes his place on the second line with Mike Ribeiro.

Late 7:16 p.m. puck drop tonight as the Stars honor Eddie Belfour for the 58th time -- or at least second in a row when we're here.

Wild looks to snap a 14-game winless streak tonight. Yeo told me, "This afternoon, we're looking for a live chicken, getting a few candles, some incense."

Wild wins tonight -- mark my words. I will see a Wild win in Dallas for the first time since I'm the beat writer.

I was talking to somebody high up in the Wild yesterday and he made clear the Wild will not trade away its top prospects before the trade deadline.

He said, "Now that's not to say we won't trade some prospects or picks."

I immediately thought to myself guys like Casey Wellman can be had.

He could. Wellman has been traded to the New York Rangers for Erik Christensen and a conditional 2013 seventh round pick. If the Wild re-signs Christensen, it doesn't get the puck. If he leaves as a free agent, it gets the seventh.

From the Jan. 19 paper: The Rangers are offering Wojtek Wolski and Erik Christensen to the Wild.

From Jan. 16 blog: Some guys available? Maybe the Rangers' Wojtek Wolski, who has been a healthy scratch lately, and Erik Christensen, who hasn't played since Dec. 17 and then basically asked to be sent to the minors on a conditioning stint so he could play. Fletcher does have a history with him from Pittsburgh, but, man, that'd be just adding a body in my opinion.

OK, that should get me off to a good start with Christensen. He is a shootout stud, and the Wild's not a studly shootout team.

"I'm very excited for a fresh start," Christensen said. "It's been a trying year and to go to a place where Mike Yeo and Chuck Fletcher know me, it's really excited. I can't wait to find my game again because I haven't played an NHL game since Dec. 17."

Christensen played with Kyle Brodziak in Wilkes-Barre, Josh Harding in Brandon and skates all summer in Edmonton with Brodziak and Matt Kassian.

Wellman was the Wild's first big college free-agent pickup out of UMass. Remember, that was when the Wild literally had NONE of its top prospects. He fell down the depth chart bigtime.

Christensen, who has a 6:15 flight tonight en route to Dallas, will make his Wild debut on Saturday, wearing No. 26. He'll center the third line with Darroll Powe and Carson McMillan. Warren Peters will go to the fourth line with Kassian and Jed Ortmeyer.

Chad Rau has been reassigned.

Christensen, 28, has five points in 20 games for the Rangers this season, and three points in five games for the Whale. He posted 27 points (11-16=27) in 63 games for the Rangers last season. Christensen totaled a career-high 33 points (18-15=33) in 61 games for Pittsburgh in 2006-07. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound native of Edmonton, Alberta, has collected 156 points (62-94=156) and 156 penalty minutes (PIM) in 358 career NHL games during seven seasons with Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Anaheim and the Rangers. He was originally selected by Pittsburgh in the third round (No. 69 overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

He ranks ninth all-time with 24 shootout goals -- two behind Mikko Koivu and four behind leader Jussi Jokinen.

Coach Mike Yeo had Christensen in both Wilkes-Barre and Pittsburgh: "I'm excited. He's a quality NHL player. He's got elite skill. That's one thing for sure. His hands, his passing ability, his vision, his shot, he's versatile, good power-play guy, can win faceoffs and good on shootouts."

Wellman, 24 (10/18/87), has seven points (2-5=7) in 14 games with the Wild this season, and 24 points (13-11=24) in 25 games for Houston.

The Wild's without Guillaume Latendresse and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and littered with minor-leaguers. Christensen has NHL experience. Fletcher said he has to assume the worst right now with Latendresse and Bouchard and that they won't be back. He said that's not definite, but there's no road map and he can't as a manager keep waiting.

"We hope for the best, but we have to plan for the worst. That's a big reason behind this move," Fletcher said.

He said what Christensen does well, it needs -- faceoffs, center play, PP, shootout ability because "this could come down to one or two points."

Wellman obviously slid down the depth chart since the Wild drafted Granlund, Zucker, Larsson, Bulmer, Phillips, Lucia and traded for Coyle. There was a time when he was the top dog prospect, so a lot's changed since.

Update: Only guys skating today in Dallas are Marek Zidlicky, Mike Lundin, Mikko Koivu, Brad Staubitz, Josh Harding, Jed Ortmeyer, Cason McMillan and Matt Kassian. Rest of the guys off-ice workout after the Wild got to hotel at 4 a.m. Yeo says if he has to guess, no Clayton Stoner vs. Dallas.

Evening from the Pepsi Center, where apparently outside it looks like Snowmageddon -- so much so that my flight Friday morning was preemptively cancelled hours ago. I was put on an afternoon flight Friday, but there’s a good chance I’ll be spending the night here.
So, why do I tell you this? Barring news, likely no blog Friday because I won’t make it to practice in Dallas because if all goes to plan, the earliest I’ll land is 7 p.m. However, after tonight’s game, I’d think it would be a very optional practice anyway.
Heck of an effort in the thin Colorado air tonight – 1-0 win, 37 saves by Niklas Backstrom, and because Colorado and Dallas lost, Wild's up by 3 on them for the eighth and final playoff spot. Down to five defensemen by the 7:04 mark of the second period because Clayton Stoner sustained a lower-body injury during a fight with Cody McLeod, the Wild was taxed as the Avs came on strong.
But the Wild played gritty, physical and threw its bodies in front of shots. The team blocked 26 in all – five by Nate Prosser and four by Greg Zanon. I think it was actually more, quite frankly. They’ve got Dany Heatley down for one. I remember three off the top of my head.
The biggest block came on the shift before Zanon’s goal. Colorado attempted its first shot of the game. The rebound wound up on McLeod’s stick with a gaping net in front. But Prosser blocked it. The Wild got a faceoff in the Avs’ end. Kyle Brodziak won it, Heatley sent it to the point and Zanon weaved his first goal since Oct. 15 through traffic. It was the 11th goal of his career and second career game-winner. It held up from 6:04 of the first to the end.
And what da ya know? Zanon talked to us tonight. He “had nothing for you guys” after the Nashville collapse and has lately been on a no-talk-about-me edict.
It’s a shame, too, because he’s a great quote.
“This is a tough place to play with the [thin] air,” he said. “You get caught out there for a couple long shifts in a row, and it’s tough to get your air back. When Stony went down, as a D corps, we just sucked it up and decided [to play] short shifts. The forwards did a great job collapsing down low to help us get the pucks out.”
Prosser, as usual, was money. The kid is so poised and he and Chad Rau had a bunch of Colorado College buddies at the game tonight. Also, DU’s Jason Zucker was in the coach’s office as usual after the Wild plays here. I’m not so sure the Wild second-rounder has ever seen a Wild loss here. It’s 10-1-2 in the past 13 visits.
Backstrom is money here, too. It was his fourth shutout vs. the Avs and he is 9-2-1 here all-time, 6-1-1 in his past eight with having allowed one or fewer goals six times. He is 20-5-2 all-time vs. Colorado with a 2.16 goals against average and .928 save percentage (2-4 in the playoffs though).
Mike Yeo’s been begging one of his goalies to seize control of the cage. Tonight was a good start for Backstrom. He’ll start in Dallas, where the Wild has lost 14 in a row.
Stoner is a question mark. The big question is who enters for Stoner if he can’t play: Marek Zidlicky or Mike Lundin. If it’s Lundin, the Wild better keep Zidlicky away from sharp objects and in seclusion.
That’s it for me. I’ll update the blog if there’s news Friday. Obviously, I’ll have a follow in Saturday’s paper and this Sunday, I’ll have a Wild insider in the paper looking at the trade deadline. Maybe I’ll mentioned Zach Parise and the Minnesota lovefest currently going on.
Also, check out this Kyle Brodziak story in Friday’s paper. Contract talks are about to begin.
OK, I’m going to go drive through a blizzard now.