Jim Souhan: Losing Rolston could tarnish Risebrough's record

American sports fan love the contrite. We admire men who fall on swords, preferably their own. So Doug Risebrough is ascending in reputation as a man among men, even if his admissions have to make you question the quality of work he's done as the Minnesota Wild's general manager.

At the end of the Wild's disappointing playoff loss to an average Colorado team, Risebrough offered this admission about his handling of the team's restricted free agents, and the disruption they caused in the locker room:

"I think some of those frustrations were poor management decisions. I'm always a guy that believes players have to earn their contracts. So I don't have any problem with players playing in the last year of their contracts.

"I might have had too many guys playing in their unrestricted years this year. That led to potentially more guys playing outside of the team. That was my mistake and that became [coach] Jacques [Lemaire's] problem."

Upon signing former Wild stalwart Andrew Brunette on Tuesday, Risebrough admitted he should have never let Brunette leave, and that a simple conversation with Brunette before his departure might have kept him around.

And with the ever-popular Brian Rolston leaving the Wild to sign a lucrative deal with New Jersey on Tuesday, Risebrough admitted he probably should have approached Rolston about a new contract earlier, before Rolston sensed the free-agent market would be this rewarding.

Risebrough and the Wild were active Tuesday, the first day of free agency, but with Rolston leaving, Pavol Demitra's departure probably imminent, and the Wild already hurting for scoring, here's what Wild fans should be asking today:

With the departure of Rolston and Demitra, and a roster that already lacks goal-scoring, re-signing Gaborik appears more important than ever.

Gaborik just lost a high-quality teammate in Rolston and is about to lose a friend and a goal-scoring enabler in Demitra. The Wild isn't done reshaping its roster yet, so maybe The Riser will surprise us. But if he can't bring in a big name, someone such as Marian Hossa, then the Wild promises to score even fewer goals next year than it did last year, and promises to become even more dependent on Gaborik.

Lemaire, even when winning a Stanley Cup, had to face charges of boring hockey.

If the Wild is boring this year, you'll have to look higher on the management chain for the culprit.

The Riser is lowering expectations for a franchise that has thrived in terms of popularity despite offering only one playoff run in its history.

Unless Risebrough can make the kind of blockbuster deal he's never made before in Minnesota, we can say that the Wild botched this one. It's not that their offers to Rolston weren't reasonable. It's that they knew all along that Rolston was popular, durable and a perfect fit for Lemaire, and instead of signing him when he was interested during the season, they waited until even generous offers had no chance of keeping him from the open market.

Signing Rolston would not have won the Stanley Cup for the Wild. At some point, though, the Wild bosses need to stop thinking they're smarter than everybody else, and make obvious moves at obvious times.

When you are as popular as the Wild is, when the loyalty of your fan base exceeds your franchise's accomplishments, when TV ratings are high and attendance is, allegedly, perfect, sometimes you just need to pay a popular player, even if you think you might be overpaying him.

It's the least the Wild can do for the most incomprehensibly loyal fans in sport.