THE PROSPECT BUILDING HAS JUST BEGUN IN MINNESOTA
TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. – In terms of results, things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Minnesota Wild at this year’s Traverse City Prospects Tournament. Minnesota was the only team in the eight-squad field not to win a game and though the first three setbacks were one-goal affairs, the Wild got blown out 6-1 by a shorthanded Chicago side in the seventh-place final. To paint a picture of the scene, Blackhawks prospects Michal Teply and Tim Soderlund scored on a 2-on-3 – and no, I do not mean a 3-on-2. Having said that, Minnesota director of player development Brad Bombardier still found the positives. “It’s a great tournament to see the same age group against each other, where you can gauge where their games are at,” he said. “Some of our guys on the pro scouting side haven’t seen these kids before. And the compete for level; we’ve been very pleased with that. We played a lot of one-goal games, we just weren’t able to capitalize.” One issue for the Wild was the fact four of the organization’s best prospects were not at the tournament. Current NCAA players don’t go to Traverse City because it…