MINNEAPOLIS -- The rink at Parade Ice Garden is going to be awfully crowded during the first few days of the Minnesota Wild's training camp, which begins Friday and runs through the end of September.

Seventy players are in camp, but 35 will be cut by next Wednesday. Theoretically, all 23 roster spots are up for grabs, but coach Jacques Lemaire and general manager Doug Risebrough already have a good idea of who will make the team.

"Ours is the same as most situations with the exception that opportunity is wide open," Risebrough said. "You're going to say if a guy is a 10-year pro, he's going to have a better chance. I would not disagree with that one bit. But he's competing against somebody else who's an eight-year pro coming from different circumstances."

Lemaire said just because team officials have an idea what the roster will look like when the season opens Oct. 6 against Anaheim, that doesn't mean there won't be some tough battles fought in camp.

"We need practices, we need games to determine who's going to be able to play with who," Lemaire said. "You need games and a lot of games because I want to try different guys in different situations and see how they react."

For example, there are six good potential left wingers out of the 11 in camp: Scott Pellerin, Aaron Gavey , Darby Hendrickson, Steve McKenna, Cam Stewart and Darryl Laplante. But will someone have to move over to right wing, which will be one of the Wild's weaker positions? And who will be left wing on the first, second, third and fourth lines?

"To get the right combination takes a little time," Lemaire said.

Right wing Sergei Krivokrasov knows what to expect in camp. He was in the Nashville Predators' inaugural training camp two years ago and left unprotected by Calgary in the expansion draft. He views this year's camp as a fresh start.

"I'm not thinking about (Nashville). I just go out there and play. I'm here and I'll do my best," Krivokrasov said. "I'm definitely happy to be here with the Wild."

The Wild hope Krivokrasov returns to the form he showed in 1998, when he was an All-Star who scored 28 goals for Nashville. He had just 10 goals last season for the Predators and Flames.

For defenseman Sean O'Donnell, a virtual lock to make the team because he's a six-year veteran who has averaged 64 games a year playing for Los Angeles, the camp is a chance to prove he shouldn't have been left unprotected in the expansion draft and that he can be a valuable player.

"I'm happy with the way things were going, but at the same time, I was left unprotected, so I was a bit disappointed with that," O'Donnell said. "But I have to come into this situation with optimism."

After they had medical exams and fitness testing on Thursday, Wild players discussed how excited they were to be joining the Wild with a clean slate, but goalie Jamie McLennan wondered why so many players would want to cut off all links to their hockey past.

"I don't know if you need a fresh start, but for a lot of us, it's a personal challenge," he said. "We're all coming from different teams and we all had different roles there. Now we want to establish new roles here."

McLennan, drafted from St. Louis, is the likely starter, and Manny Fernandez, a backup with Dallas last year, should be the No. 2 goalie. Zac Bierk, who played briefly for Tampa Bay last season, should start the year at the Wild's minor league affiliate in Cleveland.

The Wild will divide into four teams while there are 70 players in camp. Scrimmages will be held twice a day until Monday, when Risebrough will start evaluating players and releasing some. All practices will be at Parade until Sept. 24, when the team will be able to use the new Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The first exhibition game is Sept. 19 in Portland, Ore., against the San Jose Sharks. The Wild have eight games in a 13-day span, including Xcel's first game Sept. 29 against Anaheim, until the preseason wraps up Oct. 1 with a home exhibition against the Chicago Blackhawks. The home opener is Oct. 11 against the Philadelphia Flyers.