Long time Lightning assistant GM, Tom Kurvers has been hired to be Paul Fenton's new right hand man. Kurvers will take over control of the Wild's AHL affiliate as the GM of the Iowa Wild.

That position had previously been held by Chuck Fletcher's right hand man, Brent Flahr, who for now remains with the organization but in what capacity remains to be seen. Along with assistant GMs Andrew Brunette and Shep Harder whose futures with the club are also uncertain at this time.

Kurvers a Minnesota native, growing up in Bloomington, and then playing his college hockey at UMD, winning the Hobey Baker Award in 1984.

Kurvers is very familiar with his new team after spending the last 10 years with the Lightning front office. Kurvers has had an up close and personal view of his new team after spending most nights in the Xcel Energy Center Pressbox while working for Tampa.

The great part about Kurvers knowledge of the Wild personnel, is the fact that he was viewing them with an unbiased approach from an outside organization. That can only be a positive as he builds his working relationship with Fenton, to retool the Wild roster.

Switching gears now to the team on the ice as this is a critical period for the new front office and timing is everything in making the right deals to help this team move forward.

It is obvious that the only way to make this team better is through the trade market. Yes, there are some free agents that can help, but this class is not stacked with a lot of impact players. Combine that with the Wild's salary cap situation and it is very obvious that is the best route to take.

Now that said Fenton must work some magic for sure in finding the right trade partner(s) to provide the Wild with the best return. As Vegas proved to all of us over and over again, it does not have to be the big name players, it just needs to be the right players.

So Fenton has no ownership to any of the Wild players, that is a great element in itself. But he does need to know the value of certain players before he decides to ultimately pull the trigger and send them packing.

Jason Zucker is a home grown 30 goal scorer with tremendous speed. If Fenton is going to move Zucker, the return better be significant in such a way that it appears lopsided in the Wild's favor, or he should not be moved, because those traits are very difficult to replace.

Matt Dumba is a 23 year old right shot defenseman, that had 50 points this season. He has five years of NHL experience under his belt and is only now scraping the surface of what he can become in this league. To me moving Dumba for anything less than a knock your socks off deal, he too should stay.

That said exploring both Dumba and Zucker's value around the NHL, along with every other player on the roster is advisable for any new GM stepping into a new team. But to make a deal simply to make a deal is a setup for disaster especially with either of these two players.

One area that Fenton needs to address, and surprisingly he did not do over the weekend at the draft, is goaltending. Adam Vay, Adam Gimour, and Steven Michalek all were not extended qualifying offers making all three unrestricted free agents. Combine that with Niklas Svedberg signing abroad that leaves the Wild with only Kapo Kahkonen and Dereck Baribeau as the only goalies under contract in the system behind Devan Dubnyk and Alex Stalock.

The backup goaltending position is a position Fenton wants to upgrade and there are some options in the free agent market for him to explore. Carter Hutton, the Blues backup and former Predator is an obvious choice, along with Cam Ward, Robin Lehner, and Craig Anderson.

Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17

Join the Discussion: » 8 Comments » Post New Comment

» Walker Up, Goligoski On LTIR

» Wild Look To Tighten Up The D Zone

» New Season Of Hope For Wild

» Kirill Gets The "A"

» Zuccarello Extended For 2 Years