Chuck Fletcher speaks about today's two Wild trades, and about the future

For more on Kampfer, here's a good profile that was written last year by CSNNE. Wild assistant GM Brent Flahr knows Kampfer well as part of the Anaheim scouting staff that drafted him in 2007.

Also, I'll be on KFAN with Paul Allen at 9 a.m.

Here is Chuck Fletcher talking late this afternoon on a conference call.

Fletcher on Greg Zanon, traded to Boston for Steve Kampfer: "Heart and soul player, blocked shots, physically competitive every night and gave us everything he had every game he played. He did everything we asked of him and he was a very good teammate."

On Nick Schultz, traded to Edmonton for Tom Gilbert: "Represented the Minnesota Wild as well as any hockey player could represent us, both on the ice, off the ice, played 743 regular-season games for our team, was part of the Wild team that had a run back in 03, popular teammate, great in the community, good family man, was a very solid defensive defenseman and played very hard for us."

"Today's trades were not about getting rid of those players as much as adding different pieces for us going forward."

Getting puck moving defensemen for defensive guys: "I've heard some characterizations of Tom Gilbert as an offensive type of guy. I'm pretty familiar with Tom. Tom played in Wilkes-Barre a few years ago when I was general manager of that team on loan from Edmonton. … I think Tom is a strong puck mover and has the ability to contribute offensively, but ideally he has a very solid two-way game. He logs a lot of minutes. When the Minnesota Wild played Edmonton this year, Tom Gilbert was often playing on [a shutdown] line with Ladislav Smid. He's a guy that can play in any situation, he moves the puck well and he does have an offensive component. But I don't know if I'd characterize him purely as an offensive defenseman. I don't think that's fair to his talents. Our ability to transition the puck from the defensive zone to the offensive zone is an area we wanted to improve."

When Gilbert trade talks started: "Even though we're in the same division, I do talk to Tamby (Steve Tambellini) quite a lot. I remember having a conversation about Tom Gilbert three summers ago to be honest with you when I first took the job. He's one of those types of players I just felt would help our team. Over the last couple days the conversations picked up. They were looking for a particular fit and we were looking for a particular fit. It's a trade that probably benefits both clubs in terms of the types of players that they have on their team."

How agonizing is it to trade a popular teammate like Schultz? "Extremely hard. There's been a lot of people singing his praises today and rightfully so. It was a hard conversation. This was a hockey trade. This was not a salary dump or dumping a player that we didn't appreciate or we didn't value. You're trading a good player for a good player. That's always difficult. We felt going forward we needed to … add a little bit more puck-moving ability to our back end. Over the next couple seasons, we hope to add more and more talented, young forwards. It's no secret we've struggled offensively this season and I think this is a natural evolution for our team. I can tell you one thing: There would have been a lot of other pieces I would have preferred to move besides Nick Schultz, but Steve Tambellini knows the players and knows the league. It wasn't an easy price, let's put it that way."

Lots of salary cap space, flexibility this summer? "At least last summer, we felt we were a bit stuck in terms of not being able to get over the hump for the present and maybe not having enough assets going forward. … We're very cognizant of the fact that over time here we have to add more NHL talent, too. Part of our push as we get better will be from young players, part of it will be from adding NHL players. In order to do that, you either need cap space or you need young assets to trade, and the good news is we feel we have both. Whether it's this summer or this winter, we think we're in the best position we've ever been in terms of being going out and get better quickly."

Big fish is next objective? "It's funny. I was talking to [Chicago GM] Stan Bowman the other day and their big break was Brian Campbell. They had all these young players and they went out and got a player to come play for them and they took off. Again, whether that's a trade, and we have assets now, again we have some good, young players, we have some extra picks now, or whether it's free agency, whether it's a trade next year during the season, at some point we want to go out and try to add some top-end guys. I think keeping Mikko Koivu here was extremely important for our franchise. I think adding Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi was very important, particularly a guy like Heatley, who's a top offensive player in this league. So I think we've made some strides. But clearly when you look at our team this year, we have a good core of players. But we just need a few more. And that's our challenge. And how quickly we get there, I can't say. But we'll certainly try. That's the next step for us as a franchise."

On not doing anything else: "If you look at the trades we made, all three of them (including Zidlicky), all of them we feel can help our team right now. We're competing for a playoff spot. We have some work to do. But we've won three of our last four games. We've shown a lot of heart recently. And I feel we have the capability at taking a run at this. We're always interested in adding younger assets, and I think for the most part, we were able to accomplish both. We were not looking to sell players. We were not looking to dump players off our team just to pick up draft picks. We had some opportunities. It was a non-starter. We weren't interested in being quote-unquote sellers.