Yesterday's news conference began with owner, Craig Leipold, speaking. Here is most of what he had to say:

The Minnesota Wild have been one of the most successful expansion teams in the history of the NHL and we are proud of solid foundation that is in place in this city and this arena. But, what was good enough yesterday, isn’t necessarily good enough today. It is time to get better.

This organization has had an eye towards the future and starting today, we expect more of ourselves. From this moment forward, we measure ourselves against a singular goal: to deliver a Stanley Cup quality team to the State of Hockey.

This is not about flash in the pan success or instant success; we are inspired to sustain a standard of excellence on and off the ice that matches the great passion of our great, great Wild fans.

The Wild fans deserve this….

I am not a patient person, but I am a realist. I know that our improvement won’t always be a straight upward line. Progress disguises itself sometimes. As long as I see the disciplines of hard work and innovation, even I can have some degree of patience, but not a lot.

With our aggressive goals in mind, I initiated an exhaustive search for the next GM of the Minnesota Wild

The interest in this job was absolutely enormous with a very impressive list of candidates.

I interviewed numerous qualified persons, many of whom had experience, capability and desire to succeed in today’s very competitive NHL.

It was a very rewarding and educating and worthwhile experience and one that I will never forget.

In the process, I learned a lot about the Wild hockey team. It’s strengths and weaknesses and how the educated hockey people view us.

The good news is those educated hockey people confirmed my belief that we have a very significant core of players from which we can build a Stanley Cup winner.

In the process, one candidate emerged as the obvious choice to lead us into the future. His name is Chuck Fletcher.

Chuck has the qualities I was looking for in a general manager. He is organized, well spoken, has a strong scouting background, has worked towards the development of young prospects and has negotiated many NHL contracts.

With all his past experience, Chuck has excellent leadership qualities and management skills and that will certainly help him move quickly into this position.

He grew up in this great game and has a very strong hockey blood line from his father, Cliff Fletcher.

He has a Harvard degree and a strong desire to succeed.

Chuck was very interested in the Wild job from the start and had great recommendations from others in the hockey world.

Chuck has been the assistant GM in Florida, Anaheim and most recently in Pittsburgh. He has also been a player agent and understands the negotiation process.

Chuck is the total package.

We talked to Chuck about whether to get him an airline ticket back to Carolina (where the Pens are playing next) or back to Pittsburgh and he looked at us and said, “I’m a Minnesota Wild employee now.”

Chuck Fletcher spoke next. Here is most of what he had to say:

The Wild is a great organization. They play in a world class facility and they have earned a terrific national reputation. They have also maintained terrific fan support in the State of Hockey.

We have a great foundation from which to build and a quality core group of young players who are the future of this franchise.

The Wild have been known as a premiere NHL franchise since it’s inception and I intend to build on that success.

As general manager, I want players and staff that bring passion, an honest work ethic and a strong “team first” orientation to the rink and office every day.

On the ice, I want a team that plays an up-tempo, aggressive, and fast style of hockey. We want to dictate the pace of the play to our opponent. We want to regain the identity as a hard team to play against in the NHL.

Thank you to Bob Clark, Bill Torrey, Bryan Murray, Brian Burke, Ray Shero, Ken Sawyer and Mario Lemieux.

In closing, I am committed to building a consistent winning hockey team. I hope to bring and deliver a Stanley Cup championship to Minnesota.

I will continue, hopefully, tomorrow with what each Leipold and Fletcher had to say during both the public Q&A, as well as the media scrum that followed the public Q&A. Until then, enjoy your weekend.

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