Matt Dumba, Erik Haula, Zack Phillips and several other Wild prospects are in Traverse City, Mich., today through Monday to play in a prospects tournament with Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus and the Rangers.
The Wild plays Detroit tonight, St. Louis on Friday, Dallas on Sunday afternoon. On Monday will be the 7th- and 5th-place games, the consolation game and the championship game. As far as I know, these games can't be seen on TV, radio or the Interweb, but I'll try to keep half an eyeball on it.
It should be a good tournament for the Wild. It'll be interesting to see how players like Dumba and Haula do -- two players that have shots at cracking the Wild's 23-man roster out of training camp. The Wild hopes to see vast improvement from Bulmer and Phillips this month as both are considered still big parts of the Wild future and hopefully callup material this year. Bulmer, however, continues to rehab from a knee injury and stayed in Minnesota.
Other prospects in this tournament turning pro and Iowa bound this season include Raphael Bussieres, Johan Gustafsson and Tyler Graovac. The Wild will also decide this month whether to sign Kurtis Gabriel and have him start his pro career in Iowa or return him to Owen Sound for his overrage year.
Training camp begins Wednesday for the Wild with fitness testing and physicals. The Wild will be on the ice the first time a week from today at Ridder Arena before moving to the X. The Wild hosts Columbus on Sept. 17 in its first exhibition game of a six-game schedule. And remember, the Wild still plans a quick getaway/bonding trip after the final exhibition game Sept. 27 in St. Louis. It would likely be Sept. 29-30. Originally, the Wild was thinking Duluth or Brainerd, but it's keeping this top secret for now.
The training camp roster and schedule will be announced soon.
Most Wild players are in town and are skating today and Friday in Edina before moving to the X Monday and Tuesday. The Wild also has a team golf outing Monday.
I met Nino Niederreiter yesterday. He looked outstanding on the ice and definitely has a swagger to him. Mikael Granlund also looked very, very good. but he typically does in these informal NHL skates. We'll see how he looks in camp.
