Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Facts

Founded: 2000-01

Arena: Xcel Energy Center

Uniform colors: Forest green, Iron Range red, wheat, and harvest gold.

Logo design: A stylized animal's profile, with a mural of green trees, red sky, a yellow moon, with a white star (North Star) as the eye and a river (Mississippi River) as the mouth.

Rivals: Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers

Franchise history

2000-2001 -- The Minnesota Wild pick Marian Gaborik #3 in Round 1 of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.

2001-2002 -- The Wild would get off to a strong start by getting at least 1 point in their first 7 games. However the Wild would come back to earth and would finish in last place again with a record of 26-35-12-9. However, along the way their were signs the Wild were improving as 2nd year speedster Marian Gaborik had a solid season with 30 goals as Andrew Brunette led the team in scoring with 69 points.

2002-2003 -- The Wild, in their first ever playoff appearance, make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before being swept 4-0 by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Previously, the Wild had beaten the heavily favored and third seeded Colorado Avalanche in the first round in seven games, coming down from a 3-1 series deficit and winning both Game 6 and 7 in overtime. Andrew Brunette scored the series clincher. In the Western Conference Semi-finals, the Wild beat the fourth seeded Vancouver Canucks, again in seven games, and again after being down 3-1 in the series. In the process, the Wild became the first team in playoff history to capture a seven game series twice after facing elimination during Game 5.

2003-2004 -- Coming off a trip to the Western Conference Finals there was an air of optimism. However as the season started the Wild were short-handed with Pascal Dupuis and Marian Gaborik holding out. After struggling in the first month the Wild finally got their two young stars signed but both struggled to get back into game shape as the Wild struggled through much of November. In a deep hole the Wild could not climb back into the playoffs despite finishing the season strong with wins in 5 of their last 6 games as they finished last in the competitive Northwest Division with a record of 30-29-20-3. Along the way the Wild began to gear up for the future trading away several of their older players that were apart of the franchise from the beginning including Brad Bombardir, and Jim Dowd.

2004/2005 -- Season cancelled due to lockout.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
2000-01	82	25	39	13	5	68	168	210	1200	5th in Northwest	Out of playoffs
2001-02	82	26	35	12	9	73	195	238	1209	5th in Northwest	Out of playoffs
2002-03	82	42	29	10	1	95	198	178	1063	3rd in Northwest	Conf Final, 0-4 (Mighty Ducks)
2003-04	82	30	29	20	3	83	188	183	1035	5th in Northwest	Out of playoffs
2004-05¹	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
2005-06	82	38	36	--	8	84	231	215	1211	5th in Northwest	Out of playoffs
Grand Total	410	161	168	55	8	403	980	1024	5718

¹ Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

Notable players

Current squad

As of July 6, 2006 ^*

Goaltenders
Number		Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
35		Manny Fernandez	L	2000	Etobicoke, Ontario

Defensemen
Number	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
-	Keith Carney	L	2006	Providence, Rhode Island
-	Kim Johnsson	L	2006	Malmo, Sweden
-	Petteri Nummelin	L	2006	Turku, Finland
8	Brent Burns	R	2003	Ajax, Ontario
26	Kurtis Foster	L	2005	Carp, Ontario
41	Martin Skoula	L	2006	Litomerice, Czechoslovakia
55	Nick Schultz	L	2000	Strasbourg, Saskatchewan

Forwards
Number	Player	Shoots	Position	Acquired	Place of Birth
-	Pavol Demitra	L	LW	2006	Dubnica, Czechoslovakia
-	Mark Parrish	R	RW	2006	Bloomington, Minnesota
-	Branko Radivojevic	R	RW	2006	Piestany, Czechoslovakia
10	Marián Gáborík - A	L	RW	2000	Trencin, Czechoslovakia
11	Pascal Dupuis	L	LW	2000	Laval, Quebec
12	Brian Rolston - A	L	C	2004	Flint, Michigan
18	Mattias Weinhandl	R	RW	2006	Ljungby, Sweden
19	Stephane Veilleux	L	LW	2001	Beauceville, Quebec
21	Mikko Koivu	L	C	2001	Turku, Finland
24	Derek Boogaard	R	LW	2001	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
27	Kyle Wanvig	R	RW	2001	Calgary, Alberta
28	Todd White	L	RW	2005	Kanata, Ontario
37	Wes Walz - C	R	C	2000	Calgary, Alberta
96	Pierre-Marc Bouchard	L	C	2002	Sherbrooke, Quebec

Team captains

''Note: The Minnesota Wild are unique in the NHL in that the team has never named a permanent captain. The Wild have instead rotated the captaincy amongst several of its players (on a monthly basis) each season, with some players serving multiple times.

2000-01 Sean O'Donnell (Oct), Scott Pellerin (Nov), Wes Walz (Dec), Brad Bombardir (Jan/Feb), Darby Hendrickson (Mar/Apr)
2001-02 Jim Dowd (Oct), Filip Kuba (Nov), Brad Brown (Dec/Jan), Andrew Brunette (Feb/Mar/Apr)
2002-03 Brad Bombardir (Oct/Nov), Matt Johnson (Dec), Sergei Zholtok (Jan), Brad Bombardir (Feb/Mar/Apr/2003 Playoffs)
2003-04 Brad Brown (Oct), Andrew Brunette (Nov), Richard Park (Dec), Brad Bombardir (Jan), Jim Dowd (Feb), Andrew Brunette (Mar/Apr)
2004-05 no captain ,due to lockout
2005-06 Alex Henry (Oct), Filip Kuba (Nov), Willie Mitchell (Dec/Jan), Brian Rolston (Feb/Mar), Wes Walz (Mar/Apr)

Hall of Famers

none

Retired numbers

1 Minnesota Fans, 1967-93 (North Stars) and 2000-present (Wild)
99 Wayne Gretzky (retired league-wide by the NHL)

1st round draft picks

2000: Marian Gaborik (3rd overall)
2001: Mikko Koivu (6th overall)
2002: Pierre-Marc Bouchard (8th overall)
2003: Brent Burns (20th overall)
2004: A.J. Thelen (12th overall)
2005: Benoit Pouliot (4th overall)
2006: James Sheppard (9th overall)

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Wild. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player	POS	GP	G	A	Pts
*Marian Gaborik	LW	295	96	112	208
Andrew Brunette	LW	245	54	110	164
Jim Dowd	C	283	32	89	121
Antti Laaksonen	RW	323	55	63	118
*Wes Walz	C	283	53	64	117
Sergei Zholtok	LW	210	42	68	110
Filip Kuba	D	292	27	80	107
*Pascal Dupuis	LW	219	47	55	102
Richard Park	RW	217	37	37	74
Lubomir Sekeras	D	209	17	52	69