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A Brief History of the Minnesota Wild

Saint Paul, Minesota is home of one of the best professional ice hockey (NHL) teams, The Minnesota Wild. The Wild play within the NHL's Northwest Division (a part of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL)). Minnesota's Wild inaugural season debut was in the year 2000, and ever since April 9, 2008, every single Minnesota Wild home game in the team's history has been sold out (home games for the Wild are played at Xcel Energy Center)!

In Preparation for the new franchise the NHL announced Minnesota was awarded a spot in the NHL 2000-2001 season. Before Minnesota decided on an official team name there were 5 other team names in competition: Minnesota Voyageurs, the Minnesota White Bears, Minnesota Freeze, Minnesota Northern Lights, Minnesota Blue Ox, with the final winner being Minnesota Wild. Jac Sperling became CEO of the Minnesota Wild while Brian Skluzacek was appointed CFO.

Since the NHL team was officially dubbed "the Minnesota Wild" the name has become a staple in the Minneapolis & Saint Paul area as well as Minnesota. Aldrich Arena was the site of their official debut. The Minnesota Wild's 1st major sponsorship was the Minnesota Wild Mastercard thanks to First USA. The Minnesota state legislation agreed to help fund $65 million worth of project costs for the Xcel Energy Center which was built in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

When the Minnesota Wild snagged themselves a 26yr. partnership contract with the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC) everyone went wild. It was because the Minnesota Wild's partnership with the MASC is the 1st of its kind for a private professional ice hockey (NHL) team. The Minnesota Wild went on to claim it's first ever executive vice president/general manager Doug Risebrough meanwihle the Xcel Energy Center was in its finishing stages and was ready to open its doors to the public.


The first five seasons of the Minnesota Wild

When the first season officially began and Minnesota Wild tickets started selling the Wild appointed Jacques Lemaire as head coach and then chose Marian Gaborik who was then the third pick in Round 1 of the 2000 NHL Draft. The Wild weren't successful that season, but they were looking better and better as the 2000 NHL season went on. The season started out amazingly well for the Minnesota Wild as they went up against the the Dallas Stars at the Xcel Energy Center. The Dallas Stars had recently played as the North Stars in Minnesota so there was a wild rivalry going into it. The Wild took the Dallas Stars by suprise in a 6-0 shutout driving all 18,000 fans attending that night absolutely WILD.

The Wild had a reasonably good start of the season scoring 1 or more points vs the first seven teams they played, but the Wild finished in last place that season with their final record being 26-35-12-9. Throughout the season The Minnesota Wild showed signs of improvement. It was Andrew Brunette who ended the season with 69 goals followed by Gaborik ending his 2nd year with 30 points.

The Minnesota Wild made their 1st ever playoff appearance that season. Making it into the Western Conference Finals where they lost 4-0 to Anaheim's Mighty Ducks. Before that the Wild came in as the underdogs and took on 3rd seeded Colorado Avalanche in the 1st round. They came back from a 3-1 deficit and won games 6 & 7 in overtime! Later on when the Wild made their way into the Western Conference semifinals, they defeated the 4th seeded Canucks of Vancouver in 7 games. It was the same as before: the Minnesota Wild were down 3-1 then came back to win the remainder of the 7 games! Because of their amazing performance the Wild then were the very 1st team in the histor of NHL playoffs to win two 7 game series twice in a row.

The Minnesota Wild were short-handed because both Pascal Dupuis and Gaborik were out during that time. They struggled the first month, but eventually Dupuis and Gaborik got on board, however they both struggled to get back into the groove which caused a huge slump for the Wild in the month of November. Their heavy losses cost them a spot in playoffs despite having won 5 of their last 6 games. The Minnesota Wild finished last place in Northwest Div. Their record was 30-29-20-3. The Wild then traded off a few older players (Brad Bombardir and Jim Dowd) to help prepare for the future seasons.

The next season was a paradox both uneventful and dramatically tragic at the same time. The season was cancelled thanks to the lockout and Sergei Zholtok died suddenly due to a heart condition in the middle of a game in Europe in the arms of his former Minnesota Wild Teamate Darby Hendrickson.

In the season following the lockout the Minnesota Wild finished eight points behind Vancouver placing them last in the Northwest Division. Gaborik set a new record 38 goals in a season, and Brian Rolston record as a Wild player with the most overall points in a season (79). Roloson had been traded to Edmonton in the first round pick in 2006 for the NHL Entry Draft.

Wild owners then signed veterans Branko Radivojevic, Kim Johnsson, Keith Carney, and Mark Parrish. During the NHL Entry Draft the Wild traded Patrick O'Sullivan to the Kings for Slovakian Pavol Demitra. The starting goalie Manny fernandez sprained his knee on Jan. 20 so Niklas Bäckström became the new starting Goalie for the Wild. Fernandez was later cut after the Wild lost 3 goals to San Jose (final score 3-0). A member of the the Wild's minor-league affiliate, the Houston Aeros, Josh Harding replaced Fernandez, and satyed on Minnesota's lineup for the remainder of the season as a backup.

The Minnesota Wild made it into the playoffs in the 2007 NHL season for the 2nd time but lost to the Champions Anaheim Ducks in the first round, which was a hard loss considering that the Ducks had destroyed the Wild in their first playoff appearance in 2003.

The Wild broke numerous franchise records including most goals and points in a season (Marian Gaborik- 42 Goals and 83 Points). Also, Jacques Lemaire recorded his 500th career coaching win and the Wild clinched their first ever Northwest Division title in a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on April 3, 2008. They again faced Colorado in the first round as 6th and 3rd seed (as in the 2003 playoffs), but this time the roles were reversed, as this time the Wild held home-ice advantage. However, Minnesota came up short, being ousted in six games by the Avalanche.

In 2008 the Minnesota Wild added Andrew Brunette again, and traded him for Marek Zidlicky. Minnesota's Wild then picked up Antti Miettinen and Owen Nolan.

The Jerseys of the Minnesota Wild Home jersey's for the Minnesota Wild are mostly red have the newest version of the logo centered inside a circle with the name 'Minnesota Wild.' Their away jersey is white with the main logo and no circle.

The people behind the Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild owned and operated by the Minnesota Sports & Entertainment is a limited partnership created by majority owner Bob Naegele Jr. of Naegele Sports, LLC. This partnership also oversees the National Lacrosse League's Minnesota Swarm (NLL). The group not only runs the Wild and the Swarm, but also runs the Xcel Energy Center, the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and the Saint Paul RiverCentre. They own and operate via 317 on Rice Park, the former Minnesota Club. Craig Leipold bought the franchise January 10, 2008.

Information made available by Wikipedia.