BUFFALO, N.Y. – Box lunches were handed out to all draft tables around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. They should have provided the Wild's with pillows or five-shot espressos.
In a typically dull Day 2 of the NHL draft, the Wild's Day 2 was really, really dull. The team's first pick of three on the day didn't come until the 106th selection. It waited around until the seventh round to take two more players.
"We did a lot of work with the highlighters crossing off names," assistant GM Brent Flahr quipped.
The only real activity came during the times bored Bruce Boudreau stood up to stretch.
"My responsibility factor is over now," Boudreau said after putting himself out of his misery by leaving the table in the fifth round. "It's hard to think that Bruce Boudreau was the eye candy on the floor."
Laughs aside, leading up to the draft, General Manager Chuck Fletcher said after 87 points and a first-round exit last season, the Wild was open to anything that would improve the team.
Through the two-day draft, the Wild has yet to do that, at least in terms of immediate help. The four players drafted by the Wild this weekend won't be wearing Wild sweaters in anything other than development camp and prospect tournaments for two or three years.
Obviously, Fletcher won't say right this second what he has up his sleeve. But he didn't buy out Thomas Vanek's contract for no reason. He has his paws in multiple trade scenarios.