Wild Unloads

It seems like Risebrough is back on track after being distracted by last year's playoff run. He probably wanted to unload some of these players last year. However, last year's accomplishments set the organization back a bit in trying to build a team from within instead of a team of expansion-draft castoffs (although those castoffs had a hell of a run last year).

I'm not unhappy to see Bombadir go. He never impressed me as a player. He didn't do anything a defenseman needs to do (skate, pass, hit, poke-check) particularly well.

Bombadir must've been some kinda leader for the Wild to hold onto him so long and give him the "C" more than any other player. I found it amusing that games missed because of injury were included when calculating the captains' winning percentages because it seems like Bombadir was injured more than he played.

Although Zholtok definitely has the physical skills to make a living in the NHL, I think he really struggles with the mental/emotional aspect of the game. I was at a game earlier this season when he gave up to breakways on the same shift while playing point on the powerplay. It wasn't because a pass was intercepted or anything like that. The puck just got dumped out of the offensive zone and trickled back toward the Wild blueline. He didn't make even a mediocre attempt to skate down the puck, but an opponent did and Rolli had to come up with two big saves. When Zholtok returned to the bench he was bitching about something and it totally turned me off.