Marion Gaborik Makes the Wild Work Hard
August 21, 2008 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Fan Fare, Minnesota Wild, Players, Video
The Minnesota Wild are really romancing Marian Gaborik and I really can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to risk losing a player like him. Apparently, Wild president/GM Doug Risebrough and assistant GM for hockey operations Tom Lynn, actually travelled to Slovakia to meet with Gaby and used stats and “inside information” about their plans for the team to try to show him how valuable he is to Minnesota. Understandably, Gaborik has voiced some concerns about continuing to be a productive goal-scorer. I don’t think it’s something to really worry about considering the fact that he had a great year in 2007-2008 season, posting a career-high of 42 goals and 41 assists in 77 games while helping the Wild win their first Northwest Division title.
“He’s going to make a decision, and we want him to make that decision with all the information that’s out there and not base it on any misconceptions or myths,” Lynn said Monday. “He got a higher level of information than any other player has gotten. He was really pleasantly surprised. We thought the meeting went well, and Marian expressed the same thing.”
Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, added: “I have a lot of respect for how they handled that. It was a smart move on their behalf.”
Well, I hope it all works out because I think Gaby is a good fit for the Wild. Since we are already talking about him, I couldn’t resist putting up my favorite hit/whatever you want to call this, of the season. Here it is (again!) - Hasek vs. Gaborik:
