Dean Evason was officially named Wild head coach, removing the interim tag today as the Wild open camp. Evason led the team to an 8-4-0 record prior to the season being halted and earned himself a new 2-year contract in the process.

These are very strange times indeed and getting the stability begond the Wild bench nailed down is a good step as the transition of the club continues.

Evason took over a team that had already turned things around quite a bit under former Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau, but the timing appeared to be right for Bill Guerin to make the move as Boudreau was in the final year of his contract and not Guerin's guy for the long haul.

It is interesting in that Evason was former Wild GM, Paul Fenton's head coach choice. A couple of takeaways from that are: This is another of Fenton's additions that have helped shape the Wild proving that he indeed knows his stuff, despite the shortcomings that cost him his job as Wild GM. The other is that Bill Guerin is smart enough to make educated decisions on what is best for the team and not just make a hire of someone that he has a past relationship with.

As camp opens the Wild will be without Greg Pateryn who reportedly has an upper body injury and is out indefinitely.

The Wild also made news when Bill Guerin hired Judd Brackett as their director of amatuleur scouting. Brackett had been with the Canucks organization for the past 12 seasons. Brackett and the Canucks were unable to negotiate a contract extension after Brackett rejected the Canucks 2-year deal.

Brackett was very instrumental in building a solid prospect pool in Vancouver, and those talents are a welcome addition to the Wild who have been rebuilding their talent pool after former Wild GM Chuck Fletcher had gutted it with his draft pick trades in an effort to make a significant playoff run.

Updated: Kirill Kaprizov has been signed and can join the team through phase 3 and 4 but is not eligible to play. More to come...

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