Mikael Granlund mum on his contract talks; Wild finally plays at home again

Finally, a home game again!

For the first time since smoking Colorado 5-zip two weeks ago, the Wild returns home to host the rebranded Arizona Coyotes.

"That opening game just feels like an eternity ago," coach Mike Yeo said.

Darcy Kuemper vs. Mike Smith in the net.

Keith Ballard and Christian Folin were expected to be the third pair tonight, but they both apparently fell sick at the same time. So Nate Prosser and Matt Dumba will get into the lineup tonight.

Wild lines:

Parise-Granlund-Pominville

Niederreiter-Haula-Fontaine

Cooke-Carter-Zucker

Suter-Brodin

Scandella-Spurgeon

Prosser-Dumba (although Dumba practiced at left D this week, too)

I'm also writing a crazy story for Saturday's paper that you will most definitely be interested to read.

On the Wild signing Charlie Coyle to a five-year extension, Yeo said, "Real good thing for our organization. We saw it recently for Brods. It starts with a guy like Mikko and Zach and Suts and Pommer, our older core leaders, but these young guys are such an important part of our group, and Nino getting done earlier in the summer. We're really excited to lock these guys up. We feel good about the group that we have here."

Parise, on the Coyle re-signing, said, "It's important for us. For him, he's got that comfort of not worrying about that in the offseason. He can just play and know he's all set for a long time. From a team standpoint, Charlie's a really good player and I think he's only going to get better. You don't find a lot of guys with that size, skill and skating ability. They just don't come around that often. You can play him anywhere in the lineup and he's going to do well. Now if we can (looks left), there's another guy hopefully we can get him [signed] soon also and we'll be all set for awhile."

That guy? Mikael Granlund.

Things change obviously, but as I have written a few times this week, as of now, Granlund's camp doesn't seem to be all too interested in a long-term deal. It seems focused on a two- or likely three-year bridge deal that'll give the No. 1 center the chance to pile up big numbers the next two or three years and then hit a grand slam contract.

Granlund said of Coyle and Brodin, "They're great players and great friends. I'm really happy for them."

On his situation, Granlund said, "I better not say anything."

On the short-term vs. long-term thing, Granlund said he would explain his reasoning as to which deal he chooses after he signs it.

He did make sure to say though, "I love this organization. I've been really enjoying my time here. I think this team is going to just get better. We're going to have great years ahead of us."

It's so interesting for somebody like me who has covered this league for 20 years to see this whole new world the NHL has become. Pre-2004-05 lockout, teams owned player's rights for 10 years or to age 30 before they could become unrestricted free agents.

So what did that risk cause? Young kids on second contracts getting bigtime deals to chip off some arbitration years and unrestricted free-agent years. Teams have to ante up big bucks before they truly know what they're paying for. Everything is based on projections. So youngsters get inflated contracts after their entry-levels and teams hope they're right.

It never used to be that way. The benefit though? If you're right, you're getting them at quality prices during their peak years in the mid-20s as opposed to "overpaying" later to keep them from becoming free agents.

Maybe I'll expand on this in my Sunday Insider. Maybe.

On tonight, Yeo said, "Execution is going to be key" against Dave Tippett's structured Coyotes.

This is another edition of mentor (Tippett) vs. protégé (Yeo; Tippett's former Houston captain).

Yeo also said the Wild can't turn pucks over and feed into Arizona's counter game. The D, guys like Keith Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, love to join the attack.

First of six games in nine nights for the Wild.

"Hockey players want to play games. We know the importance of practice. We take it seriously. But at the same time, we've had a lot of it," Yeo said of four games in the NHL season's first 15 days. "So it's time for us to start playing some games. This will present a new challenge. We have a lot of games in a short period of time, but we're ready to play again."