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A number of the Wild’s young talent had a chance to showcase what they could do late in the season, once the Wild were officially eliminated from the playoffs. Although no Calder candidates emerged for the 2003-04 season from the Wild, three rookies in particular gave fans of the team a reason to be hopeful.

Here is a look at the stats for the five Minnesota Wild rookies who saw NHL action this season.

Brent Burns, RW/D – Selected in the first round, 20^th overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. (Age 19)

Young power forwards sometimes find it difficult to adjust to the speed and size of players in the NHL, requiring at least a few seasons before they can impact games like they did in junior. The Wild elected to keep Burns, perhaps their power forward with the best potential, with the team after training camp. He started the season off well, potting his first career NHL goal in his third game in a 3-2 loss versus the San Jose Sharks. Six games into the season he had four points (1 goal, 3 assists), but that would end up being two thirds of his total points for the season.

His strong start motivated the Wild to keep him past ten games, instead of returning him to the OHL’s Brampton Battalion. He then separated his shoulder on October 26^th. He played his 10^th game on November 15^th, which triggered the start of his three-year contract. After earning one point in the next six games, and being a healthy scratch for a few more after that, the Wild decided it would better serve Burns if he participated in the 2004 World Junior tournament in Finland. He appeared on Canada’s big line along with Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter, collecting six assists and twenty penalty minutes on his way to a fairly strong tournament that resulted in a silver medal for the team.

He returned to the Wild briefly before injuring his neck in a practice on January 28^th, and when he returned on February 26^th after missing eight games he was assigned to a short conditioning stint with the Aeros. It lasted just the one game in which he registered an assist, two penalty minutes, and was a minus-1. He returned to the Wild again and continued to play an average to below average amount of minutes for Wild forwards with the odd healthy scratch mixed in, but was by no means excelling as a forward with just 1 goal and 4 assists through 31 games. When Filip Kuba’s right index finger was broken on March 25^th Lemaire decided to experiment with his 19-year-old forward and shifted him from right wing to defense, a position he played up until his 2002-03 season with the Batallion.

The change included the key role as the right handed point shot on the Wild power play and on the final day of the NHL regular season Burns assisted on a power play goal by Stephane Vellieux to finish his rookie year with 6 points.

The Wild have been extremely high on Burns since they drafted him and with his strong finish to the year with five games on defense, Coach Lemaire is even more optimistic about the outlook for next season for the Ajax, Ontario native in his possible permanent return to rearguard.

Zbynek Michalek (D) – Signed as a Free Agent September 29^th, 2001. (Age 21)

Michalek made his NHL debut on January 16^th, 2004 while on his second call up from Houston. In total he was recalled from the Aeros three times this season. The Jindrchuv Hradec, Czech Republic native scored his first NHL goal, unassisted, on March 9^th in a 4-3 victory over San Jose.

It’s been expected that Michalek has the career potential to be a decent offensive defenseman, but in the 22 games he played in this season he only averaged 29 seconds of power play time per game. Even when Kuba went down with injury late in the season, Lemaire elected to move Burns back to point on the power play over using Michalek, whose 14:12 ice time per game average was the lowest of all defensemen for the Wild this season.

Michalek was part of the Wild’s youth movement near the end of the season and, including his first goal, he had his first assist and was minus –2 for March and April when the team went 9-4-1.

Undoubtedly, this first taste of NHL action was good for the young defenseman even if it was statistically unimpressive. His play was fairly steady and it was a good learning year to build on for his future, and should increase his chances of securing a regular role with the Wild next season.

Rickard Wallin (C) – Acquired via trade from Phoenix Coyotes for Joe Juneau on June 23, 2000. (Age 23)

Wallin only appeared in the last 15 games of the season but he was arguably the most promising rookie to appear for the Wild this season after being recalled from Houston on March 6^th. He collected 9 points (5 goals, 4 assists) in that time, but it was comprised of two three point games and one two point game.

The creative and agile Swede also notched a game winning goal, a career first, versus Dallas on April 2^nd, a game in which he finished with two goals, one assist, and a plus–1 rating. In total, three of his five goals this season came on the power play.

Wallin’s impressive play couldn’t have been all that surprising to the Wild given his past performance in Sweden and the fact that he scored his first NHL goal last season on his very first NHL shot. He appeared in four games total last year before breaking his hand and subsequently being assigned to Houston when he returned from the injury.

The 23-year-old has a very impressive stat going thus far in his 19 career NHL games: A 35.3 shooting percentage. And his percentage of 31.3 for this season was second only to teammate Matt Johnson (33.3) for all players in the league who appeared in more than 10 games.

Perhaps most importantly, Wallin attracted the praise of Lemaire and GM Doug Risebrough for his late season run with the Wild. The Wild could use his scoring and he is almost a sure bet to make the team next season if he continues his strong play next preseason.

Kyle Wanvig (RW) – Selected in the second round, 36^th overall, in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. (Age 23)

Wanvig appeared in six games in the 2003-04 season, one fewer than the year before, but don’t take that as a con for the former Memorial Cup MVP. Lemaire already knows what he has in the young power forward from Calgary, Alberta, and so elected not to deprive the Houston Aeros of their leading scorer (41 points in 72 games) by bringing him up for the Wild’s year end youth expose.

He was, however, recalled to the Wild a total of three times in December and January, and on January 16^th he registered his first career assist in the NHL versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. His first career goal came in his first career game last season.

In 2000-01 Wanvig lead his Red Deer Rebels to a Memorial Cup, and last season he helped the Aeros to a Calder Cup championship. With a third, and his most productive AHL season in the books, Wanvig will be looking to continue his winning ways at the next level come the new season. The Wild have already let him know that he will have a good opportunity to make the team out of training camp next season.

Travis Roche (D) – Signed as a Free Agent April 8, 2001. (Age 25)

Roche was given a shot to be a power play point man at the start of the season when he appeared in five non-consecutive games, but he had only one assist and was a minus-3. That assist, on October 28^th in a game against Buffalo, was the first of his career and came on the power play. When Sergei Zholtok returned from irregular heartbeat problems on November 9^th, the Wild waived Roche. He cleared waivers and spent the rest of the season with the Aeros. It appears that his time with the Wild has most likely come to an end. The team’s signing of Alex Henry off waivers from Washington on October 9^th helped make Roche expendable for the club.

When the call ups began in March and the Wild were in need of a defenseman Roche was injured, although it’s doubtful that he would have been given the call anyhow.

It’s not all bad for Roche, who had another strong season with the Aeros. He earned 38 points (8 goals, 30 assists), despite playing in only 60 games, which was good enough for a tie for third in team scoring.

Roche is now an AHL veteran at only 25 years of age, and it appears that he might be looking at a career in that league unless he catches a break with another franchise down the road.

His first career NHL game came was with the Wild during the 2000-01 season, the day after he had played in the 2001 NCAA championship game. He appeared in four games in the 2001-02 season and was a -2 with no points.