Wellman can relate to Da Costa

If anybody knows what Stephane Da Costa's going through, it's Casey Wellman.

One year ago, minutes after Wellman's sophomore season at the University of Massachusetts ended, NHL teams that had been hovering over the Amherst campus for months began swarming.

His agent, George Bazos, was inundated with requests. Wellman's cellphone began buzzing with teams wanting to set up meetings.

"One team took me to Starbucks and had me take this psychology thing. I was like, 'Uh, OK,'" Wellman said, laughing. "That was one of the weirder ones. I mean, it took a long time -- like 200 questions."

Wellman never did get the results, probably because he chose the Wild over what Bazos said were 20 other teams after GM Chuck Fletcher went "above and beyond."

Fletcher's trying to do that again with Da Costa, largely considered the biggest fish on this year's college free-agent market. Merrimack's sophomore leading scorer has been holed up with his adviser, Wade Arnott, in Toronto as teams try to separate themselves and convince Da Costa that they provide the best opportunity.

"The Wild are being strongly considered," Arnott said. "He will make a decision this week."

"It's very overwhelming," said Wellman, 23. "You just lost and then there's immediately this new stage of your life coming at you. There's a lot to take in, and you don't have a lot of time to make a decision.

"It's not easy because while it's exciting -- you're about to go to the NHL -- I was also giving up two free years of school and some friends I became close to."

With advice from his parents, his agent and one of his mentors, Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, Wellman made up his mind in 36 hours.

The most stressful part was the actual signing of the contract. He was having dinner with his parents when he got a call to rush to the UPS Store, where the Wild would fax his contract. He needed to sign it and fax it back to beat the deadline so he could potentially play the next night.

The Wild has recruited Da Costa with a recruiting video, Fletcher's charm and promises that he'd have a chance to be an integral part of the Wild's future. It looked late Wednesday like the Wild, Ottawa and Florida had the best shots at signing him.

That's a significant number because next year the 7.5 percent performance bonus cushion that allows teams to exceed the salary-cap ceiling won't exist because the NHL and NHLPA will be entering the final year of the collective bargaining agreement.

That means signing Da Costa (assuming he'd make the team) could limit the offseason spending of any team approaching the cap, which includes the Wild.

But Minnesota believes that much in Da Costa's skill level.

Wellman played against Da Costa last year in Hockey East action.

"He's got a really good shot," Wellman said. "On the power play, they try to set him up for one-timers every time on [Tampa Bay's Steven] Stamkos' side [left circle]. He's solid.