Draft week is finally upon us with the first round Friday in Pittsburgh at 6 p.m. (NBC Sports Network) and the second through seventh rounds Saturday starting at 9 a.m. (NHL Network).
I'll be hosting a live chat on startribune.com Wednesday at 1 p.m. from Pittsburgh. I'll also be in studio at KFAN on Paul Allen's show Tuesday from 9:55-10:35 a.m.
The Wild chooses seventh -- barring a trade to move up or down. The top-rated Minnesotan is Lakeville's Brady Skjei, who has won back-to-back Under-18 world championships with the United States. The terrific-skating defenseman should be a mid- to late-round first-round pick Friday.
The soon-to-be Gopher also is one of seven Minnesotans that was selected to attend USA Hockey's evaluation camp in August for the next world junior championships this winter in Russia. Wild 2011 second-round pick and soon-to-be Notre Dame center Mario Lucia was also chosen to attend. The full list can be seen here.
South St. Paul's Phil Housley will coach the team.
If you didn't see, I talked to Wild GM Chuck Fletcher about trades in today's paper. That article can be found here.
Thirty-eight percent of Fletcher's 21 trades he has made as Wild GM has been made around the draft, the biggest coming last June at the St. Paul draft when he dealt Brent Burns and a second to San Jose for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and a first (Zack Phillips).
While Fletcher has been having a lot of trade conversations lately, I just don't see how he executes anything remotely as thunderous as the Burns trade. He just doesn't have the pieces, the Wild would sooner go after Zach Parise for no assets (other than monetary) in free agency and Fletcher is not looking to trade the prospects teams would require for a big piece.
