UPDATED WITH WEDNESDAY ADDITIONAL APPEARANCE:

Attention Wild fans:

Have any questions about the Wild or NHL this upcoming season or simply want to talk hockey? I'll be making my annual appearance at the Star Tribune booth's back porch at the State Fair on Friday at noon.

Come on by and hang out.

Also, Wild GM Chuck Fletcher will be doing a live Q and A with me at the Star Tribune booth next Wednesday at 2 p.m. If you want to hear from Fletcher and also have the opportunity to ask him questions, come on by the booth that afternoon.

I'll also be on KFAN from its booth with Dan Barreiro at some point Thursday afternoon and with Paul Allen on Friday at 11 a.m., so tune in or stop by.

Also, if you've missed any of my podcasts with Jim Souhan, there has been lots of Wild chatter and much fun stuff. They are archived at malepatternpodcasts.com

Things will be ramping up soon as training camp quickly approaches Sept. 17.

If you missed the latest Darryl Sydor article, that can be read here.

Also, I wanted to send my condolences to former Wild defenseman Jon Blum and his family for the loss of his mother. He made the announcement on his Twitter account here. In March 2014, I did a pretty emotional profile on Blum. In the article here, he talked about the loss of his twin sister and his mom's battle with cancer when he was younger.

Blum recently signed to play in Russia. Best of luck to him.