Looks like Chuck Fletcher is warming up for the trade deadline. Erik Christensen and a conditional 7th round pick in 2013 for Casey Wellman. Now, a lot of us may be a bit saddened by that trade as Wellman was our first big hope that the youth movement Fletcher wanted to install was going in the right place. Alas, he never really found his place with the Wild.

Who is Erik Christensen though?

Erik Christensen

#40 / Center / New York Rangers

Height: 6-1

Weight: 200

Born: Dec 17, 1983

Now, this may not look like much, but Christensen was a center in a team that was full of them, but he can also play wing. He's also missed a few games due to a knee injury. Here's what The Hockey News has to say about him:

ASSETS: Owns a big shot and excellent offensive instincts. Has good size. Can play all three forward positions and is a good face-off man. Excels in shootouts.

FLAWS: Loses a lot of puck battles in the corners. Doesn't do the little things that help win hockey games. Takes too many shifts off to maximize his scoring potential.

CAREER POTENTIAL: Inconsistent forward with great hands.

The flaws may be a bit scary, but he's an inexpensive shootout master, the shootouts being the bane of the Wild is recent years. He's ninth all-time with 24 shootout goals and has a 52.4% success rate, which is very high. Only Frans Nielsen has a better success rate with at least 15 tries. Now, this isn't to say Christensen will magically fix the Wild. You can't overestimate the importance of good face-off takers either. This is a trade-off of two mid/low quality players, but a change of scenery can do wonders for some players (e.g Guillaume Latendresse) and Fletcher even got a conditional pick. It's only a 7th rounder in 2013, but hey, lots of quality players get overlooked until late rounds.

Fletcher basically got two players, one who may help right now, especially in shootout situations, for a player we were starting to feel was done in Minnesota. I like this trade, how about you?

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In your "only in a hockey town" moment of the day, KARE11 is reporting that an Apple Valley man was arrested and charged with driving under the influence while struggling to manuver the Zamboni off the ice at Hayes Park Arena. According to the report, the police were called "after getting reports of a man operating a Zamboni who appeared to be intoxicated."

The article clases out by saying:

The man was given a field sobriety test and arrested for driving while impaired. The driver, a part-time arena employee, was taken into custody and given a blood alcohol test.

Results from the blood alcohol test were not available.

There is not much to say about this story, as it is still unfolding, but it does leave me with two questions. With guaranteed contracts in the NHL, why in the world is Nikolai Khabibulin running a Zamboni in Apple Valley, and will Devan Dubnyk now take over that job, or can the arena call up someone from the Oilers farm system?

According to both Russo and the Wild's Twitter account, Guillaume Latendresse has returned to practice for the Wild. He has missed 32 games with a concussion, after returning from... a concussion. His presence has been missed by the team, who currently have zero net presence, and no prototypical power forwards to substitute in. He was clicking very well with Mikko Koivu and Dany Heatley before being injured, yet again, and was one of the many injury blows the Wild took as their early season success dried up.

Will Latendresse immediately make the team better? Most definitely. Is he the solution to everything that ails them? Absolutely not. It will take a fair amount of time for him to get back to game shape, and once he does, it will likely take some time for him to get back up to game speed.

Don't expect to see the Guillaume Latendresse you all know right of the gates. This is a serious injury, a long recovery, and no one wants to rush this.

Still. Good to see he is back with the team and practicing.

According to the January issue of the Defending the Blue Line January Newsletter, the Minnesota Wild will once again be hosting a Camouflage Sweater auction. The date of this year's event will be February 26th, as the Wild face the San Jose Sharks, and champion of the cause Brent Burns.

According to the newsletter, the camo sweater auction resulted in the single largest donation ever made to Defending the Blue Line. Without a doubt, this year's event will likely at least match last year's. Fans will get a second chance to land a limited edition sweater, autographed by their favorite Wild player.

We will get you information on the site for the hosting of the auction as soon as that is available, but you can be sure it will be linked to here and at Wild.com.Get your cash and credit cards ready, folks. It's time to bid high and win that camo sweater you didn't get last year.

Anyone going after one of these beauties?

Yes, that's right. Hockey Wilderness would like to take on the honor of covering the growing women's game in addition to the coverage we already bring you. We are looking for someone for a weekly column on High School girl's hockey (similar to what Jesse and Chris bring us about the boys game), and a weekly column covering the Women's programs inside the borders of Minnesota at the college level.

Are you that person? We'd love to hear from you. There are links to emails at the bottom of the page, you can let us know in the comment section, talk to us via Twitter (@hockeywildernes, @ReynoldsSBN, @nathaneide), reach us at our Facebook page, hire a courier to bring us a note, check yes or no on the note the kid behind you has... whatever manner you wish to communicate in.

We would like someone over the age of 18, and able to attend games, or at least watch the games in some way. Someone with strong knowledge of both hockey in general and women's hockey specifically.

This "job" pays absolutely nothing, but does come with the prestige of being part of the greatest team of writers in all of Minnesota hockey. You also have the opportunity to represent Hockey Wilderness at state tournaments and college level tournies as well, should you so choose.

Are you our newest writer? Let us know.

The Wild have made a few roster moves today, according to a press release, Twitter, and Kent Youngblood. There have been no trades, but Chuck Fletcher appears to still be working the system as much as he can.

The moves today are simple swaps from St. Paul to Houston and back. Nothing ultimately impressive, but you will get your first shot to see Chad Rau, which many of you have been pining for. Hopefully the kid brings his A game, turns the team around and never looks back. You can all dream if you want to.

The moves from today are:

Reassigned: Casey Wellman and David McItyre

Called up: Matt Kassian, Chad Rau, Jed Ortmeyer, and Nate Prosser.

The guess here would be that all four are put into the lineup tomorrow against Dallas, if for no other reason than to send the message that if the guys on the roster aren't willing to play, they'll bring in guys that will.

Thoughts, Widerness?

Word from Wild HQ is there is a new, fancy iPhone app to "help fans go Wild."

I love Public Relations.

The app looks to be pretty cool (details in the release after the jump), with ways to order food, in stadium instant replays (very cool), in arena social media, maps of the X, and of course the basics of news and information about the team.

We're not here to shill for the Wild, but if you have an iPhone, go download the app (it's free) and report back, would you? Some of us aren't cool enough to have an iPhone. Or really cool enough to have anything for that matter.

Full release and details. After the jump.

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Hockey Wilderness will have no content today, in protest of SOPA, the bill currently before congress threatening to remove the right of people like us t deliver content to people like you. The very act of our morning "Walk" would become illegal. A basic link inside a post leading you to the source information could be seen as a violation of the law as well.

Hockey Wilderness, and SBNation as a whole could be shut down for even the smallest violation, and even if that violation is done by a reader in comment of FanPost.

Take the time to inform yourself on this codification of censorship and blatant limitation of innovative thinking. Ask yourself if you want the US Government to protect old industries doing things the old way, or if you want to the web to be able to progress and create ever new ways to share and communicate.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Keep it civil.

(Note... if anything pressing happens, we'll let you know.)