I'm officially back on the hockey beat. Unfortunately, countries are at three different venues today and U.S. and Canada don't practice and aren't available until tonight, so it'll be a little bit of a scramble today.

There should be hockey news around 2 p.m. your time. That's when final rosters must be submitted, and there are a smattering of injuries in the NHL, including Ryan Getzlaf, Marian Gaborik and Tomas Holmstrom. Reportedly, Holmstrom's already been replaced with Red Wings teammate Johan Franzen. Getzlaf's playing with a high ankle sprain and got four points last night in Edmonton, so you know that was a statement from him that he's OK to play. If Stevie Y and Co. replace Getzlaf, it'll be Philly's Jeff Carter. Wild players got in late last night. The Vancouver Canucks were nice enough to bring their equipment, so that should have made it easier for Mikko Koivu, Nik Backstrom, Antti Miettinen, Marty Havlat and Marek Zidlicky to get out of the airport. It's always a funny scene watching a bunch of Olympians hauling these huge equipment bags over their shoulders once they arrive in Nagano, Turin, wherever. Impressed I remembered who played for the Wild, by the way? A lot of you asked me in emails and tweets the last few days my opinion of the Cam Barker trade. I've got to say, I like it, and I think it's well documented that I was a Kim Johnsson guy and definitely a fan of Nick Leddy. But here's the thing: Johnsson's value, besides being a minute muncher, is mobility. With Barker you get that and more, and a guy that's more than 10 years younger. Barker can skate and unfathomably has a better shot than Johnsson. It's also well documented that I never felt Johnsson was an adequate power-play guy. Mobility, yes, but unlike Zidlicky, he never got points. I think you get that with Barker. So now suddenly at the point in the future, you'll have Zidlicky (assuming he's re-signed, and he will be), Brent Burns, Barker, and as of now, Marty Havlat or Nick Schultz, but eventually perhaps Marco Scandella or Tyler Cuma, or a free-agent replacement this summer. As for Leddy, once Chicago said it wanted a prospect, it had to be one of the Big 3 D. Obviously the Blackhawks are stacked with young forwards and don't need a Cody Almond, James Sheppard or Colton Gillies, who are basically the Wild's only young bargaining chips up front. Leddy, as good as he was in high school, was still years away from being in the NHL and you still don't know for sure what he's going to be. And, the Wild was not thrilled so far with his development at the U and concerned about his future because of it. But assistant GM Tommy Thompson said, "Those things generally work out – either the guy's pulled out of there as other people have been in the past or the situation changes there. That wouldn't be the reason to making the deal." When GM Chuck Fletcher came to the Wild, the team had few assets and he had to figure out a way to fill the NHL team with upside youngsters. So how do you do that? He made quite clear in the story I wrote last June that you either use youngsters or draft picks as players, or you spend that like they were currency. He's trying to upgrade the youth of the organization, and since the team is not willing to fall flat on its face and get top-five bluechip-like picks every year, he's decided to use the non-sure things (Pouliot, Fallstrom, Leddy) for young, but already established NHLers, that could be here for 10 years (Latendresse, Barker). That goes to the column I wrote in January – there's many ways to build a franchise and get quality youngsters without losing. So, Fletcher's shown this year he's willing to spend his non sure-things, projects, undeveloped players (whatever you want to call them) for players that will be here. In other words, hockey trades with long-term in mind. In other words, he wouldn't have traded Leddy for a Johnsson (free-agent rental), but he would for a Barker (23 years old, former No. 3 overall pick). Fletcher may have overspent for Chuck Kobasew (Fallstrom AND a 2011 second), but time will tell on that. But as far as Latendresse and Barker, to me, it's worth the risk because we're talking young-20s here. Onward, I spent three days on the luge beat, and it was certainly neat covering something else. Got to chat yesterday with Tony Benshoof's family and a bunch of his friends from Minnesota -- all of whom are big Wild fans. So as the Wild game was going on yesterday during the third luge run, I just talked Wild for about a half-hour, giving them updates of the Canucks-Wild game from my Blackberry. Benshoof is officially on vacation now. He's a big Wild fan as well and in general, a big Olympic hockey fan, "so my goal is to see as many Olympic hockey games as I can." He plans on going to several events over the next couple weeks to support his fellow American Olympians. "I'm going to enjoy it. Enjoy life. Vacation. Let loose," he said. Benshoof, sliding with three herniated disks was disappointed with his Olympics – an eighth-place finish after hoping to become the first American singles male luger to medal. Lowering the start to the women's ramp (kinda like when I golf from the ladies' tee, shhhh) really affected him because of his back. It takes a lot of effort to pull out of the ramp, and even though by the end you're only going 7 or 8 mph slower, the slide is really won or lost at the top because now suddenly sliders were going 30 mph slower at the top, lugers were saying. And Benshoof is real good at picking up speed as the slide goes on, his girlfriend, Molly, said. "It was a bittersweet weekend with the tragedy and the dropping of the start, but it's a great crowd and I had a blast," Benshoof said. "Even though I'm disappointed with my result, looking up and seeing all my friends and family cheering and having a great time, it was definitely uplifting. "It's hard to be disappointed when you've got such an amazing group cheering you on." In 1988, Benshoof watched luge for the first time during the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. He wondered, "How do these guys stop?" Benshoof was enamored, and coincidentally, a year later, he read in the newspaper that the USA Luge Slider's Search, a recruitment program, was rolling through Minneapolis during the summer of '89. Benshoof's father took him down to a small Minneapolis hill. He sat on a converted sled with roller skate wheels, "and little did I know what was next – a life in luge." After, USA Luge invited him to Calgary to try sledding on ice. Then he was invited to USA Luge's home in Lake Placid. "He never missed a cut," said his mom Violet, who owns Josephine's Interiors in St. Paul. While Violet believes luge is just catching on in the United States, she says Tony's a star in Europe. "He gets letters all the time from Britain and Austria and Germany that just say, 'Tony Luge Benshoof, White Bear Lake, USA. No address, but they get to him." He'll take part in next month's nationals in Lake Place and then have back surgery. After that, he'll probably be "finished" luging, but first, "I've got to make it eight-time national champion." OK, officially, my mind turns to hockey – although I'm sure I'll be covering some other events the rest of the Olympics, too. The Wild assigned Cody Almond to Houston after yesterday's game. As for Anton Khudobin, it'll be up to his hip injury, but he's expected to be assigned, too.