Wild at a glance
	Camp schedule: Sept. 11: Xcel Energy Center Coach: Jacques Lemaire (2nd season, 25-39-13-5) General manager: Doug Risebrough (2nd season)

Don't call it the neutral-zone trap, OK? Whatever it was, it worked well enough to enable the Jacques Lemaire-coached Wild to 25 victories last season -- the usually discerning Twin Cities hockey fans didn't seem to mind that Minnesota scored the fewest goals in the league.

But once the euphoria over the NHL's return to the market dissipates, the standards of evaluation might change and the term "entertainment" might even enter the picture. All that said, Minnesota did do a good job of assembling a decent first-year team and not selling out the future.

The emerging star: Slovak Marian Gaborik had a terrific rookie season for the Wild, managing to put up 18 goals and team-high 36 points. THIRTY-SIX POINTS LEADING THE TEAM? That would have been fifth on the Predators, for example. But this kid is the real deal, and maybe he can kick it up another notch in his final season as a teenager (he turns 20 next Valentine's Day). Sergei Zholtok, whose rights were acquired from Edmonton and was re-signed, won a $725,000 contract in arbitration, and it would help immensely if he reawakened after a terrible 2000-01 season with Montreal and the Oilers.

Getting younger: The Wild gave up its two top defensemen, Sean O'Donnell and Curtis Leschyshyn, near the trading deadline. Under the circumstances, it's hard to find fault with that kind of forward thinking, but it puts a lot of pressure on the younger defensemen this season, including Filip Kuba and Willie Mitchell, picked up from the Devils.

Second-year malaise: All signs point toward a second-season regression, but that has as much to do with further reliance on youth than anything alarming. So if the Wild don't panic and stray from the building plan, it shouldn't be a disaster.

Wild 2001-02 preseason schedule
Date	Opponent	Time
Sat., Sept. 15	at Calgary	Canceled*
Mon., Sept. 17	at Edmonton	9 p.m.
Tue., Sept. 18	at Calgary	9 p.m.
Wed., Sept. 19	at Anaheim	10:30 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 23	Calgary	3 p.m.
Tue., Sept. 25	Edmonton	8 p.m.
Fri., Sept. 28	Anaheim	8 p.m.
*Rescheduled for Sept. 18