Friedman: Vanek "has not fit" with Wild
/Elliotte Friedman was on Calgary’s Sportsnet 960 on Monday morning.
On the Minnesota Wild as one of the most underachieving teams in the NHL:
“There might be some stuff there. I look at Minnesota and I say, ‘What’s not right there?’
“Parise is having a really hard year behind the scenes. Him and his dad are very tight. His dad is not well. He’s fighting a battle against cancer and it’s unfortunately and very sadly – and there’s a story about it yesterday by Michael Russo – he’s not winning the battle. And Zach Parise, despite all that, is playing the best he can.
“Unfortunately, and it’s not the kids there, it’s the veterans. A lot of them are not having good years. And a lot of it surrounds Vanek. And that’s a team that played so well last year. They gave Chicago all they could handle in the second round. And Vanek got there and for whatever reason, it’s just not working and he’s taking a lot of the heat. He has not fit. He has not played well. I think there might be some issues behind the scenes there that we don’t know publicly, just in terms of the way he’s fit in the room.
“And the other one is the goaltending. They can’t get healthy there, and they can’t get enough of a save there. Now I reported on the weekend I’d heard that they’d gone after Jhonas Enroth from Buffalo. Chuck Fletcher and Tim Murray are really tight. Both denied it. Tim Murray said nobody has called on his goalies. But to me that’s a move that makes a lot of sense for Minnesota, pending what they have to give up.
“And I don’t think Chuck Fletcher wants to make short-term moves. One thing he did say to me is that he’s not interested in trading his first round draft pick. So I think Minnesota is kind of caught in the middle there. But I just don’t like what I see going on there and I think there’s more there than meets the eye, off the ice.”
Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey
Related: Friedman on Bruins, Coyotes, Vermette, Lucic, Eriksson, Blues, Oshie
