Gaborik Update

Sorry, the update is, there is no update. And because of this, I am truly convinced, now more than ever, that the Wild want nothing to do with Gaborik and will make no attempt to bring him back. The simple fact that there is a lack of information that has been released by the Wild following Marian's surgery is almost monumental in itself. Take if from a guy who receives all of the press-releases in the form of email, the Wild are known to go a bit overboard with the releases they send out. I am not complaining because I definitely like being informed about what is going on with the team but there was a time when the press folks over there were sending out releases that were questionable as to their newsworthiness. But to be fair, since the teams beginning, they have reigned-in the number of releases they do send out.

Back to Gaborik, the teams elite player who goes through a procedure that will keep him out for up to 14 weeks, and there is virtually no news. In fact, the only tidbit that I could find came from Russo (who else), and the information was simply one sentence from the Wild, "Marian Gaborik’s hip surgery went well and as expected. He’ll begin rehab immediately."

And that's it. Ordinarily if you have a star player that figured into your future, you would think that there would be certain updates as to his procedure he underwent followed by progress of the rehabilitation. Now looking back, there were a few signs that I probably subconsciously ignored because I did not want to believe them to be true, that pointed to an end to Marian's career with the Wild once the decision was made to have this surgery. Both came from Risebrough, who showed a subtle disagreement with how Gaborik was going about his injury.

The first was "I’m disappointed that he won’t be here with us for this point in the season. But, you know, this is the choice that Marian has made. So I have no other comment.” After reading this over and over I think it's clear that the team really did not agree with Marian's 'choice'. The second is a clear disagreement in interpreting of the time frame for recovery. It was stated from the Gaborik camp that this procedure would need 10-14 weeks of rehabilitation, while the team politely uttered the 10 weeks, with no mention of up to 14. Whether or not the Wild were using the 'glass is half full' approach is doubtful.

I know this subject is like beating a dead puck, but an asset like Gaborik does not come around often. It's unfortunate that this injury will keep him from becoming a nice trade piece before the March 4 trade deadline, but that does not mean they have to throw in the towel and let him walk. Once again, the option is clear to me, sign him and then worry about dealing him. Unfortunately I believe the team has already cut its losses.