NHL Insider: Mitchell Plan paying off

I only covered Willie Mitchell for a season.

Actually, not even a full one because he was dealt by the Wild to Dallas before the 2006 trade deadline in the infamous trade for … Martin Skoula.

But what I loved about covering Mitchell is he's the type of player you can walk up to, turn on your recorder, ask a question and 10 minutes later he's done. He'll talk and talk and talk. He even says thought-provoking stuff (get him going on concussions), which is quite the concept in today's day and age when athletes are seemingly advised to be vanilla. But Mitchell is willing to talk your head off, often veering off topic to a more interesting one before circling back to the question at hand.

Perhaps this is why I was hoping (OK, campaigning) for the Wild to re-sign the 37-year-old defenseman July 1. I wanted the go-to quote. The Wild wanted the ruggedness after losing Clayton Stoner to free agency. But the eternally rebuilding Florida Panthers blew the Wild's offer out of the ballpark with an eye-popping two-year, $8.5 million deal.

The Panthers wanted Mitchell for his leadership after winning Stanley Cups in two of the past three years with the Los Angeles Kings. Mitchell wears the captain's C in South Florida and hopes to leave an impact on a young group that is learning how to win. This is a franchise that has made the playoffs once since 2000 and hasn't won a playoff round since 1996. That means some high school graduates haven't been alive to see a second round. This is a franchise so unstable since 1998 that it has changed coaches, GMs and/or owners more than 20 times combined.

Hockey fans and media love to make fun of South Florida because they're playing in front of 8,000 fans a night.

"But what market anywhere, even Canada, could draw in those conditions?" Mitchell wondered during a chat before last week's Wild-Panthers game. "We have new owners here. They're not handing out free tickets anymore. They said, 'Hey, listen, guys, it's going to be painful at first. We're going to start this from the bottom up again and do it the right way and keep our brand integrity.' "

"I like that challenge," Mitchell said. "Maybe that's how I play the game, too. I'm always kind of the underdog, the defensive defenseman who goes against the top players, so I kind of like that challenge of selling the fans on this team. I think everyone here wants that challenge."

The Panthers are 8-6-6. As of Friday, if just three of those overtime/shootout losses were wins, they'd be inside the East's top eight. They've got great pieces to build from, like Nick Bjugstad, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov up front, Aaron Ekblad on the blue line and Roberto Luongo back in goal.

"Look at [Bjugstad]," Mitchell said of the Blaine native and former Gopher. "He has got all the attributes to not just be a good NHL player but a stud NHL player. We're starting to see little snippets. These guys all have skill, but they've got to realize that they have to play the game the right way, show good work ethic, and once that's staring them in the face, that's when their skill takes over."

That's when Mitchell circles back to the original topic: getting Panthers fans back so every night the empty seats aren't a subject of leaguewide jokes.

"No one's expecting us to do anything this year, right?" Mitchell said. "We want to prove some people wrong and take that next step, and if we do that, maybe our peers take notice, and when the peers take notice, the media takes notice and then the fans take notice. That's how it starts. It starts on the ice. It starts with what we can control."

Calgary Flames President Brian Burke had a number of poignant things to say last week about the late Pat Quinn, both as a coach and GM.

"He was the best listener I'd ever seen in my life," Burke said. "Pat's theory of coaching, he was going to make you, as a player, trust him and make you, as a player, feel like you didn't want to let him down. He didn't believe in punishing, especially young players. He never embarrassed them. He made them feel important. They trusted that he would do the right thing by them. That was his gift and his knack as a coach."

As a GM, Burke said, "We called him the python. Pat didn't make a lot of calls — he didn't hunt. He sat by the path and waited for some helpless GM to come by, then he'd grab him and strangle him."

Major changes could be coming in Edmonton, which is winless in nine games. The Oilers fired goalie coach Freddie Chabot, head coach Dallas Eakins is on the hot seat and they're apparently willing to trade anybody not named Taylor Hall or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

"Changes have to be made," said David Perron, who could be on the move soon.

"I feel confident with myself and the coaching staff, but I'm also a realist," McLellan told the San Jose Mercury News. "I understand the business."

St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Butler got some help in the penalty box Tuesday from a fan after one of his contact lenses got poked during a fight.

"A lady like two seats over from the penalty box reaches in with a little bottle of contact solution and it helped me out because the thing was kind of shriveling up," Butler said. "She saved me there. I owe her something for sure."

Wednesday: 6 p.m. vs. Montreal (FSN)

Friday: 7 p.m. vs. Anaheim (FSN+)

The Canadiens goalie led Canada to an Olympic gold earlier this year, finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting and is off to another outstanding start this season.

« I just try to put my head down and skate as fast as I can. »