No announcement came Monday regarding the Wild's next play-by-play voice, but I am told an announcement is close and it will indeed be Fox Sports North veteran Anthony LaPanta.

An announcement was supposed to come Monday, but things got sidetracked when the Wild and FSN were taken aback by the backlash regarding the LaPanta hire on this blog, Twitter and other message boards. The team also needed to complete the process of contacting candidates who were not chosen. The Wild and FSN did hold a conference call to discuss the feedback and how to manage it. But they were always going to stick with the original decision of hiring the longtime Wild, Twins and Wolves studio host and Gophers' hockey play-by-play voice, though.

I'm guessing an announcement comes Tuesday.

At the risk of having you flame throwers turn on me (ha), I'll be honest and say I haven't listened to LaPanta call many games because I'm usually working Wild when he's working Gophers, but he's a polished broadcaster and at the very least didn't deserve to be raked over the coals. There's a human side of this, too. I'm all for passionate fans, but some of the comments on the previous blog were just mean-spirited.
 
 
 
 

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