One coach hired, four to go; Wheeler reacts to move to Winnipeg; Wild Road Tour

Afternoon from hot and humid Toronto, where 102 of the top prospects in the June 24-25 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul are converging on the city for the annual draft combine.

Over the next several days, the prospects go from hotel room to hotel room to be interviewed by select teams. Some speak to as many as two dozen. On Friday and Saturday, the fitness testing begins where athletes are put through the gauntlet (13 different fitness tests) in two-hour windows.

Each team gets to review medical histories of each prospect, plus most teams bring their strength coach and a team doctor.

Four Minnesotans are here: Wayzata's Mario Lucia, the top-rated Minnesotan in the draft, Seth Ambroz (New Prague), Mike Reilly (Holy Angels) and Joe Labate (Holy Angels).

I'm here to gather stories for our draft coverage, so I'm not sure whether I'll be writing live for the paper. But I will blog. There's already been an "only can happen to Mike Russo thing," but I may have to save it for the eventual book.

If I get permission to pass along, I will. It's very funny.

Finally, the first of five coaching vacancies has been filled. Florida has hired Portland Pirates coach Kevin Dineen to be the franchise's 11th coach since 1993. Normally, teams aren't supposed to hold press conferences during the Stanley Cup Finals, but the Panthers have done so throughout their history and will Wednesday.

Ironically, seven years later, Dineen was hired over Torchetti, who was interviewed, and Dudley is now in a state of flux as Winnipeg's GM because of today's news. Remember, Torchetti is also technically Winnipeg's associate coach, too.

This leaves Minnesota, Ottawa, New Jersey and Dallas as the four remaining vacancies.

As I've reported, I hear the four candidates are pretty much down to former Dallas/Philadelphia/Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock, Pittsburgh/Montreal coach Michel Therrien, former Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish and Houston Aeros coach Mike Yeo.

GM Chuck Fletcher's interviewed the three veterans already. He has not interviewed Yeo yet, I'm told, although let's be honest, Fletcher's spent a lot of time with Yeo the past six weeks.

Fletcher's on his way to Toronto as we speak for the draft combine, and Houston, which is in the Calder Cup Finals, is preparing to play Game 3 on Wednesday (series is at 1-1). So I'd think we're a week or two away from a hire.

We tried to reach Dustin Byfuglien today, but the Roseau native and now Winnipeg defenseman is incommunicado fishing. Before he was traded last year to Atlanta, I asked his mother, Cheryl, if she'd like to see Minnesota trade for him: "Oh, no, no, no. That wouldn't be healthy for Dustin. Too many relatives, too close by."

Well, Winnipeg's a tad closer to Roseau than St. Paul.

Colleague Kent Youngblood talked to Blake Wheeler today, and he passed along these quotes:

reaction: "Since I just got traded to Atlanta from Boston late last season, I feel like it's been a whirlwind, going from Boston, to Atlanta, now to Winnipeg. But, from what you hear about the city, with the weather, the winter, the different things about the city, it sounds a lot like Minneapolis. It will be like playing at home.

"It will be nice to be a day's drive from here to there. I think it's about 7 1/2 hours, which is what I looked up. It will be mpre accessible, easier (for friends and family) to drive up on a whim. That will be nice."

"It will be harder for guys who had set down roots in Atlanta, guys who have places down there, it will be harder to move. It's never easy to get traded, or to have to move. I know my wife (Sam), we lived in Boston, and she was excited about the warm weather in Atlanta. To uproot again (will be hard)."

Lastly,