Wild Reduce Training Camp Roster to 39
The Iowa Wild’s training camp opened today and as expected the Minnesota Wild made some significant cuts, bringing their roster down to 39. It will be cut more before opening day when the team will arrive at their 23 man roster. (Though, Harding is a part of those 39 and he will not be a part of that 38 man roster.)
Cut from camp were ten players who are heading to Iowa: Corbin Baldwin, Brady Brassart, Raphael Bussieres, John Curry, Kurtis Gabriel, Alex Gudbranson, Johan Gustafsson, Colton Jobke, Zack Mitchell, and Ryan Walters.
Dylan Labbe, who had a great camp, was also cut. He won’t go to Iowa though and will instead return to the Shawinigan Cataractes of the QMJHL. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him up in Iowa at the end of the season when the Cataractes are done though, like he did last year.
The team reassigned
Another great experience at @mnwild camp, and was awesome to get in my first exhibition game. Roady to @IAWild camp to take the next step!
— Kurtis Gabriel (@kurtisgabriel) September 26, 2014
That leaves the following players at camp:
Forwards
Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, Jordan Schroeder, Zach Parise, Cody Almond, Justin Fontaine, Jason Zucker, Stephane Veilleux, Kyle Brodziak, Nino Niederreiter, Matt Cooke, Thomas Vanek, Brett Sutter, Joel Rechlicz, Jason Pominville, Michael Keranen, Curt Gogol, Tyler Graovac, Brett Bulmer, Erik Haula, Zack Phillips, and Mikael Granlund.
Defensemen
Keith Ballard, Stu Bickel, Christian Folin, Marco Scandella, Jon Blum, Ryan Suter, Gustav Olofsson, Jonas Brodin, Guillaume Gelinas, Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon, and Matt Dumba.
Goalies
Ilya Bryzgalov, Niklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Josh Harding, Brandon Whitney.
If you’re trying to keep count in your head and get closer to 23 from 39 you can almost certainly remove Harding, invitee Brandon Whitney, Ilya Bryzgalov (who is there on a tryout), Curt Gogol, Guillaume Gelinas (who is injured), Justin Falk, Joel Rechlicz, Michael Keranen, Tyler Graovac, and Zack Phillips from the list.
That brings the roster down to 29.
One of the notable log jams there is on defense. The team kept the three young defensemen who are battling for a spot — Matt Dumba, Christian Folin, and Gustav Olofsson. Stu Bickel, who has been a point of contention among fans who aren’t hoping to see a facepuncher in the lineup, remains as well. It’s likely that three of those four will be heading to Iowa as well (unless Keith Ballard’s injury turns out to be worse than expected).
That brings the roster to 26. Still some tough battles to be had and a player like Michael Keranen or Tyler Graovac is certainly capable of surprising and making the lineup, but outside of a surprise, it looks like those 26 (after you cut three of those four d-men) is what you’d need to trim three more from.