Remembering Day Two of the Draft

Day two of the draft. Not as flashy or over bearing as its cousin, day one, but every bit as important to the future of the franchise.

Since we have all had a chance to fully accept that the draft is over, thought we should take a chance to review the final day of the draft. We'll learn a little about the players the Wild drafted via opinion from some familiar sources.

Please, make the jump and let's remember day 2.

I'm with Russo. I'm not going to even begin to pretend to be an expert on these kids. I will most certainly be learning everything I can about them for the next few months, and watching them as closely as possible next season and beyond, until they are wearing Wild sweaters.

With that, I will leave it to the capable hands of Russo and Circular Theory to take you through the draft picks, Wilderness Walk style.

From Russo:

Minnesota connections in the NHL draft | StarTribune.com - A break down of the Minnesota connections in the draft.

Wild hopes jackpot follows its selection of Vegas winger | StarTribune.com - Russo takes a look at Jason Zucker. Hmmm... Russo focusing on the kid from Vegas. That's, um... shocking.

Day 2 Wild flashback featuring 2 Johan's; Look ahead to free agency | StarTribune.com - A short, but good, look at each of the players drafted by the Wild.

From Circular Theory:

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Draft Summary - Dan looks at the draft as a whole.

Player break downs...

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Select: Brett Bulmer

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Select: Johan Larsson

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Select: Jason Zucker

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Select: Johan Gustafsson

Circular Theory - Minnesota Wild Prospect Blog: Wild Select: Dylen McKinlay

Great stuff from Dan, yet again. Make sure you check out each post.

My opinion:

I am not overly high or overly low on any of these kids. The Wild made a smart move in moving up for the third second round pick. The higher the pick, the more likely it is to turn out to be a solid NHL player. The second round has been kind to the Wild in the past (Nick Schultz, Josh Harding, Marco Scandella), so I am more than OK with having three picks in the round.Third round and fourth round picks have not been as successful, thus making this trade a good one when it comes to the odds.

I like that all but one player selected is a forward. The Wild have defensive prospects, and they have goalie prospects. They do not, even in a world in which BP cares about the Gulf of Mexico, have any forward prospects. This was an excellent draft at face value. Obviously, none of knows how these selections will play out. The odds tell us that they have better than average chances.

Drafting a goalie late in the draft, especially one as highly regarded as Gustafsson is also OK with me. If he never crosses the pond, he was a sixth round pick. If he someday is in a 1-2 combo with Hackett, all the better. If he ends up trade bait after wowing the world, I hope Fletcher gets a good return.

Everything about this draft screams "I understand the problem, but I can't fix it overnight. Here are the solutions, now give it time." Chuck Fletcher will find a way to improve this team. He has shown he is willing to make moves needed to do so. Bouchard is coming back, and hopefully can play. There are a handful of options with free agency. The team will skate a full roster next season, and they will do better than they did this past season.

Step back from the ledge. After all. Shep is re-signed. All is well.