This is Bob Cobb coming to you from Rumors Sports Bar in downtown St. Paul with our my 1st official article with my new crew here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (Minnesota).  And let me just get this out of the way..   yes, I basically do follow around GM Erickson to whichever FNHL organization he leads -- I'm not ashamed to admit it, so there's no need to keep giving me grief about it in the Comments section~

In this 30th FNHL season, it's hard to expect that the Wild have the roster to compete with the big boys right away..  but I have faith that we'll see a handful of young stars rise to new heights with solid management in place for the first time in many moons.  After several seasons of sub-par play, the team did amass a few top draft picks and a few of those players are close to being ready to make a sizable Pro impact.  Players such as Leo Carlsson and Jonathan Marchessault look to be spending one more season on the Farm team, but both will surely be cornerstones of the future here in Minnesota as soon as next season.

But for this season, while the team has shot out of the gates at 3-0, the expectations are tempered for Year 1 -- We haven't heard much from management regarding the blueprint and who might stay VS who might go..  but I wouldn't at all be surprised to see the new GM put his stamp on the team by midseason.  Drew Doughty (40yrs old) and Patrick Kane (39yrs old) are players that will be near the top of the 'might go' pile if ya ask me.  With a team that isn't set to compete right now, it's hard to believe that those old fogies will be around for long! 

All that said, it will be interesting to see how long the boys can stay hot -- If I were a bettin' man, I would say the early season streak ends tonight against the winless Preds.  Hard to say that wouldn't be fitting :)