Draft plans are taking shape, but Frazier isn't sharing them

This much is certain: Leslie Frazier spent Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center as a guest of the Wild.

The Vikings coach deftly handled the "Let's Play Hockey," call before the game, receiving a nice ovation from the announced crowd of 18,591. That means there were 37,182 eyeballs that could confirm Frazier's presence.

Nailing down Frazier's whereabouts earlier last week was a bit more difficult. He declined to confirm he attended private workouts in which the Vikings looked at quarterbacks Christian Ponder of Florida State and Cam Newton of Auburn.

This comes as no surprise considering NFL coaches and executives are all about keeping things close to the vest as the draft approaches. "The only thing I can say is I've visited a few different places over this offseason," Frazier said.

Frazier did say he is close to being done with his pre-draft visits to see prospects because the Vikings soon will be starting their draft meetings at Winter Park. "I have to be in-house for those," he said. That doesn't mean the Vikings scouts won't stay on the road, and it's certainly possible Frazier could take a late trip if he and team executives feel it is in the team's best interest.

It's no secret the Vikings are taking a close look at nearly every available top quarterback in the April 28-30 draft, and Frazier admitted at the NFL owners meetings last month that it would be ideal to get one in the first two rounds.

But Frazier made it clear Saturday that he was in no way saying the Vikings would just take a quarterback for the sake of it. "The only thing I was saying about that is that would be ideal," he said. "That's the term I used. But you don't want to get to the point where you're reaching for a player just because you have what you perceive as a need at quarterback.

Minicamp likely on hold As a first-year coach, under the now-expired collective bargaining agreement, Frazier had the right to have two (instead of one) mandatory offseason minicamps and his plan was to conduct the first next weekend. But he admitted there is little chance of that happening because of the ongoing NFL lockout.

"It's highly unlikely now," he said. "We're less than a week away to try to get everybody in town and getting ready to go. Barring something clearly unforeseen, I don't think we're going to get it done. We're going to make a decision as a staff on Monday."

Asked if he would keep a second minicamp on the schedule, just at a later date, Frazier brought up an excellent point. That's the fact a new CBA could eliminate the ability of a new coach to have a second mandatory minicamp. "There are so many things we don't know," he said. "We're just kind of waiting to see."

Etc. • The Vikings will play host to their "Top 30" dinner in the middle of this week at Winter Park. The Vikings are allowed to have 30 visits from draft prospects, and most of them will be at the same time. There could be a couple of players brought in individually, too.