The Fletcher Era: A Step in the Right Direction?

It will be announced today that the Minnesota Wild have hired Pittsburgh Penguins’ assistant general manager Chuck Fletcher to be the new general manager for the franchise. He will be replacing Doug Risebrough who was relieved of his duties in April after coach Jacques Lemaire stepped down as head coach. After an in depth search by Wild owner Craig Leipold, Fletcher beat out other candidates: broadcaster Pierre McGuire, Anaheim assistant general manager David McNab, and acting general manager Tom Lynn. Fletcher will have the challenge of hiring a new coach, and trying to sort out the Marian Gaborik situation.

Fletcher, 41, will be much younger than his predecessor, but he does not lack in experience. Fletcher, who graduated from Harvard in 1990, grew up in the hockey world watching his Hall of Fame father, Cliff Fletcher. Fletcher has spent time as the director of hockey operations, assistant GM, and vice president of amateur scouting and player development for the Anaheim Ducks, assistant general manager for the Florida Panthers, and, most recently, assistant general manager for the Pittsburg Penguins organization. While in Pittsburgh Fletcher has scouted, been involved with contract negotiations, and directed operations for the Penguins’ AHL team. Fletcher will no doubt use his intelligence and hockey sense to scout up and coming players in the system, and he will play an intricate part in the draft.

One of the first tasks that he has to take care of is hiring a coach by July 1 for free agency. It will be tough to top the excellent hockey mind of Jacques Lemaire. The Wild have been playing a trap style hockey since its inception. This style focuses more on the defensive aspects of the game instead of overloading on scorers. Fletcher’s mindset will likely change this style and develop more into a more offensive rather than defensive type of system, like the one they use over in Pittsburgh. This means he will probably look for a coach who has close to the same philosophies as him, as well as someone Fletcher he close with. Some candidates include: Pat Quinn who also interviewed for the general manager position, Craig MacTavish, Kevin Constantine, Todd Richards, John Torchetti, and Newell Brown. Right now it looks as if Todd Richards is the favorite because of his relationship with Fletcher, and it sounds like that’s the guy Pittsburgh wanted to bring in after they fired Therrien.

Another thing he will have to take care of is the Marian Gaborik situation. Talks during the season between Risebrough and Gaborik’s agent Ron Salcer stalled out. It sounded as if the Wild were offering around $8 million a year but, I think they only offered at the most a three to four year contract due to his injury problems. While Gaborik was looking more in the range of $9 to $9.5 million a year over five to six years. It looks as if they will test the market, but who knows, maybe the change in face will help out the negotiations. Fletcher was a part of the huge 58 million dollar contract for former Russian bust Pavel Bure. Look for Fletcher to reel in at least one big fish in the free agency pool. Hopefully the Wild can bring home former Gopher Phil Kessel if he does not resign with the Boston Bruins.

Something that Fletcher will need to address is signing a key player or two during free agency who can help the team now, instead of the build from within program that it seems all Minnesota teams do. It is great to develop players and bring them up, but bringing those like Olvecky and Gillies in before they are ready can be detrimental to their development. Gillies, who the Wild chose to put on the roster because he would have had to play two years in junior hockey since he was not able to play in the AHL or ECHL yet. This effected him because he got less than a season in and did not help the cause very much. He could have used the two years in juniors to develop into a solid third line hockey player, instead of a player watching from the press box. It would be a step in the right direction to further them as a threat to get more than one scoring all stars on the team.

The fans would also like to see Fletcher make that blockbuster deal around the trade deadline. Too many years have gone by where the Wild needed help and they did not make a trade, or they acquired players who did not make enough of an impact. Ideally they should package some of those younger player or those whose contract is about to expire for someone who can help the cause and be a factor on the score sheet.

Something else that I would like to see is the reevaluation of our players. Those like Stephane Veilleux who was safe under Lemaire because he was his Punto of the team. Besides being a solid checker, Veilleux was nonexistent for many years on the score sheet. The Wild finally gave him a reality check when they placed him on waivers during the offseason last year to say, “Hey step up your play or you are out.” Another player is Kim Johnsson, a good defensive player, but I would like to see a little more offense out of him. He makes that good first pass that is very important for all defensemen. Maybe with the new system, he will step up his scoring more. So far, I feel that he has not lived up to his over 5 million dollars a year contract. One more thing: Give Derek Boogaard more ice time. Boogaard works the intimidation very well, but when you put him in front of the net it is the goalie’s worst nightmare. He will score more and our power play can be more effective with Boogaard screening the goaltender.

Fletcher will have some flaws to fix with the Wild, but I am sure he will do a good job. This guy has one of the best hockey minds for a younger person in the league. All of his valuable experience will pay off. If all goes well and the Wild make some key moves through free agency and trade, look for another Northwest division title, and look for them to go deeper than the first round in the playoffs. Also… look for coaching news coming within the next month before free agency starts.