YEAR ONE - A LOOK BACK
Apr 24, 2014By Tom Witosky
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Year One - A Look Back
When the Iowa Wild opened its inaugural season last October in Des Moines, most Iowa hockey fans wondered about the future of the franchise not so much the future of the club’s players.
Six months later, no one in the Minnesota Wild organization is questioning the decision to move the club’s American Hockey League franchise from Houston to Des Moines, according to Iowa Wild General Manager Jim Mill. The only thing they wish was that the team, which finished below .500 for the first time in seven years and out of the playoffs for the first time in four years, had played better for the fans.
“Playing here turned out to be a greater advantage than we had talked about or anticipated,” Mill said in a recent interview at the conclusion of Iowa’s home season. “It was a greater thing for our players than we thought it would be and, organizationally, it’s been phenomenal. It is only going to get better for us and our fans.”
Despite having the worst record in the Western Conference in the AHL, attendance at Iowa Wild home games ranked in the top 10 of the 30 team league with a total of 223,559 for an average attendance of 5,883 per game.
Part of Mill’s optimism is based on exactly what happened to the Iowa club this season – one that had an unusual set of circumstances bedevil its ability perform at a high level in the AHL, but got the parent club into the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second consecutive year. Those circumstances included:
--Major upheaval in Minnesota’s goaltending position when the club lost Josh Harding for the season due to complications with his multiple sclerosis and Nikolas Backstrom for much of the season with a stomach ailment. That alone required the permanent call-up of Iowa’s starting goalie Darcy Kuemper in January and also required Iowa’s two other goalies – rookie Johan Gustafsson and veteran John Curry to share duties in Iowa plus make occasion trips to Minnesota.
-- Injuries to Wild stars Mikko Koivo, Zach Parise as well as other starters like Charlie Coyle midway through the season. Players like forward Erik Haula and Jason Zucker filled in as the team fought its way through the season. In all, eight players, who started games in Iowa – Haula, Zucker, Kuemper, Curry, Stephane Veilleux, Jon Blum, Brett Bulmer, Jake Dowell, -- played in at least one game for Minnesota.
--Unexpected high level performance in Minnesota out of players like Justin Fontaine, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle – all of whom played this season under two-way contracts, never spent any time in Iowa this season. “Something like that isn’t realistic to happen every year,” Brent Flahr, Minnesota assistant general manager, said. “With our depth and organization up top right now, I don’t think it is going to be realistic for many of our young players to bypass the AHL.”
All AHL teams have three goals during any season, according to Kurt Kleinendorst, Iowa’s head coach. The first job is to make sure players are ready to go to the NHL, the second job is to develop young players into NHL caliber players and finally the third is to win hockey games.
“Overall, I was pretty happy with the first two,” Kleinendorst said. “The third one we need to work on. It wasn’t acceptable.”
Both Kleinendorst and Mill acknowledged that the team’s below .500 home game record is the immediate concern. Iowa had an 11-22-3-2 record at home, but a 16-14-4-4 record on the road.
“When we have more road wins than home wins, that is unacceptable,” Mill said.
Mill also suspected that the attention that the team drew from Iowa fans also caused the players to put more pressure on themselves to perform.
“This is a wonderful place and it is easy to feel great about this city. But you want to go out and perform for these people, then you put pressure on yourself – maybe too much,” he said.
Part of the explanation for the Wild’s problems was the lack of scoring. Iowa finished last in the AHL in goals scored and that problem already is getting attention, Mill said.
“We aren’t sure yet what the causes were, but we are looking at them,” Mill said. But Mill said that injuries to Bulmer, a season-ending injury to Jon Landry in January as well as injuries to Tyler Graovac, Ralphael Bussieres, and Kris Foucault, came at the same time players were needed in Minnesota.
“We had so many players in and out at times that it was hard to get any consistency,” Mill said. “That is not an excuse by any stretch, but it is also what happened.”
Mill and Flahr both predicted that the level of change on the Iowa roster would be significant. “Anytime you don’t have success you need to have some change,” Flahr said. “Realistically some of the younger guys who were there this year and now are up here, they certainly aren’t guaranteed jobs up here next year either.”
In addition, there are at least six players from the Iowa roster who are unrestricted free agents after this season and another seven players who are restricted free agents.
Mill said the club intends to take the steps necessary to improve the team’s record next year and to make it to the Calder Cup playoffs next year.
“If the circumstances of the season had been different, it would have been a ton better,” Mill said. “But we don’t live in the world of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, what we do in pro sports is all results based. So on-the-ice results are what matters and that has to get better. We are confident it will.”
Free agents, according to capgeek.com
Unrestricted: Jon Landry, Kyle Medvec, Carson McMillan, Jake Dowell, Brad Winchester, John Curry
Restricted: Josh Caron, Steven Kampfer, Kris Foucault, Tyler Cuma, Darcy Kuemper, Jon Blum, Jason Zucker