Minnesota Wild - Final Roster Almost Ready

via stmedia.startribune.com

With final rosters due to the league on Wednesday, the Wild seem to be ahead of the curve and now have their final roster set and ready to go. Obviously injuries to Marek Zidlicky and Josh Harding will play a role in the makeup of the roster early on, as the Wild kept both Erik Reitz and Tomas Mojzis. Due to Harding's cornea injury (Skoula sucks) Barry Brust remains. The team expects Harding to be ready Saturday. If he isn't, they will need to determine if Brust stays or heads to Houston for the return of Nolan Schaefer.

Sent to Houston:
- Krys Kolanos
- Cal Clutterbuck
- Danny Irmen

Those three moves open the door for both Benoit Pouliot and Colton Gillies to make the big club. Risebrough has said that he wants to sit down with Gillies to let him know what to expect this season.

"We're pleased with him, and I want to talk to him about what the plan is. If he stays, it's to accelerate his development, so there's got to be a clear understanding what we're doing as an organization so he doesn't get confused about why some things happen throughout the season. For example, 'Why am I practicing harder and longer than everyone else? Why did I play a good game last night and tonight I'm not in the lineup?'"

I can only hope that Risebrough learned from his experience with Pouliot in handling Gillies. But it certainly looks as if he still expects more from Pouliot than he is seeing:

"He's had a good camp. He came prepared," Risebrough said. "But he's kind of in an unknown territory. We like to see guys accomplished at the minor-league level before they graduate. I can't say that happened with Ben down there.

"I think we recognized maybe he has to be here for us to find that out. Initially what we're saying is we're happy."

Hey Doug, nobody in your system has been accomplished at the minor league level. Houston is a terrible team and these guys have not been able to produce there for the same reason nobody wanted to trade for anyone there. The cupboard was bare. Now, yes, it looks like things are changing. The team has assembled some good, young talent. Sheppard, Pouliot, Gillies, Cuma. Heck, according the DR, even Clutterbuck, Irmen and Kolanos has good camps and will be the first three called up. Hopefully they will be able to work on things and be ready. No team makes it through a season unscathed. Those three guys will need to be ready to go and help the team as soon as they're up.

Final rosters due Wednesday at 2 pm. I'll post the complete roster as soon as it's available. Stats and roster changes will always be available in the sidebar of the site.