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FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR WILDBy Tom Witosky | Follow @toskyAHLWild Iowa Wild General Manager Brent Flahr is a very busy man these days. One day he’s in Des Moines, a few days later he is in Helsinki, Finland. And, in between, he is in his Minnesota Wild office in St. Paul where he is the assistant general manager of the NHL club. Such is the workload of the man assigned to be looking constantly to improve the Minnesota Wild’s hockey future through the entry draft and minor league player development. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WINTER HAT TRICKS CLICK HERE In a recent chat with Flahr, Iowa’s first year GM expressed optimism that the Wild is making good progress in rebuilding its minor league roster strength that has sapped by its success in developing a strong corps of young players now playing in Minnesota. He isn’t happy about how Iowa has struggled this season, but attributed a lot of it to injuries on the front line including Tyler Graovac, Zac Dalpe and Grayson Downing. “It’s been difficult because we really haven’t had the lineups that we wanted to have because of the injuries. We really are just now getting our guys back and I think we will begin to start winning games,” he said. While Iowa has struggled, Minnesota’s ECHL affiliate, the Quad City Mallards, has a winning record – much of it with Wild players like Olivier Archambault, Mike Neal, and Raphael Bussieres. Plus, the work of goaltender Steve Michalek has caught Flahr’s attention. “Michalek has been a standout at goaltender,” Flahr said. “He has performed very well and has really grown.” Flahr attributed much of Michalek’s growth to Fred Chabot, the Wild’s minor league goalie coach “Freddy has worked with him a lot and Michalek has really taken to it, realizing what he has to do to be successful in the pro game. It is a lot different than in college hockey as far as traffic in front of the goal and what not. He has been playing a lot and doing well” Michalek may also get a chance to play in Des Moines before the end of the season. “We are going to leave him there for the season though we think he will get his chance up here some time this season and hope he will be a regular here next year,” Flahr said. Much of Flahr’s overall optimism is based on the performance of some of the club’s most recent draft choices that includes players who were named to their home nation’s national team to play in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Finland between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5. “It is a good age group,” Flahr said. “It is exciting for them and gives us a good chance to evaluate them against good talent. It also is a great chance for us to go and evaluate draft eligible players who are playing hockey at a high level.” He said that the club’s emphasis on forwards in the most recent drafts is beginning to show some strong promise. Here is a rundown from Flahr of some of the players doing well this season.
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