The Minnesota Wild is a member of the National Hockey League, and play at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1997, the state of Minnesota, city of St. Paul, was awarded the rights to a NHL expansion franchise which would begin playing in the year 2000. The team was purchased/funded by a group called Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE), which was started by Bob Naegele, Jr. and a group of business investors. MSE also owns the Minnesota Swarm, which is a member of the National Lacrosse League (NLL); Wildside Catering, which is the official catering service of the Xcel Energy Center; and 317 on Rice Park, which houses the Minnesota Wild corporate offices and also hosts wedding, event and business receptions in downtown St. Paul. Additionally, MSE owns the St. Paul Arena Company, which is the company that runs and operates the Xcel Energy Center complex (which includes the Xcel Energy Center, the St. Paul RiverCentre and Roy Wilkins Auditorium) for the City of St. Paul.

The Minnesota Wild logo is comprised of the Minnesota environment, mainly being some type of wild animal from the Minnesota north woods, the north star, several evergreen trees representing the woods of the state of Minnesota, a red sky for all of the beautiful sunsets, a sun/moon and a stream or river, depicting thousands of lakes and rivers running through the state. All of the Minnesota Wild practices are closed to the public, unlike many NHL hockey teams. The Minnesota Wild NHL team has sold out every single home game since their inception, and has an extremely long waiting list for season tickets. To help Minnesota Wild NHL hockey fans, the Minnesota Wild developed a program called the “Warming House”, which gives members of this Minnesota Wild fan club-type organization priority when season tickets do actually become available.


Initially, there were six possible names for the NHL expansion team, which were narrowed down to one through votes cast by the NHL fans across the state of Minnesota. In 1998, the NHL team was officially named the Minnesota Wild at Aldrich Arena in St. Paul. Also during that year, the state of Minnesota pledged $65 million toward the $130 million needed to fund the costs of building the Xcel Energy Center in the heart of St. Paul. The Minnesota Wild NHL team played their first season at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul during the 2000-01 season, with Jacques Lemaire serving as the head coach to the NHL expansion team. He drafted young superstar Marion Gaborik 3rd overall in the NHL entry draft. The Minnesota Wild NHL team finished last in their division that year, but showed a promising future.

In their second year of play during the 2001-02 season, the Minnesota Wild improved slightly, finishing the year out at 26-35-12-9, with young NHL player Marion Gaborik scoring 30 goals and NHL player Andrew Brunette netting 69 points for the team throughout the season. During the 02-03 season, the Minnesota Wild NHL team made it to their first playoff experience, beating the Colorado Avalanche in the first round and making it all the way to the NHL Western Conference Finals, where the Anaheim Ducks knocked them out of the running for the NHL Stanley Cup.

During the 03-04 season, the Minnesota Wild NHL team didn’t make the playoffs and ended the season with a record of 30-29-20-3. At the end of the season, they traded veteran NHL players Brad Bombardir and Jim Dowd for younger NHL players with high potential. During the NHL lockout the following season (2004-05), Minnesota Wild NHL Alum Sergei Zholtok died in the middle of a game being played in Europe due to a heart condition in the arms of former Minnesota Wild NHL teammate Darby Hendrickson. When the NHL returned to play in the 2005-06 season, the young Minnesota Wild NHL expansion team again finished last place in the very competitive Northwest Division despite Brian Rolston’s amazing seventy-nine point franchise record season. After the season ended, goalie Dwayne Roloson was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a first round pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

At the beginning of the 2006-07 season, the Minnesota Wild NHL team signed NHL veteran players Kim Johnsson, Mark Parrish, Branko Radivojevic and Keith Carney. They traded their NHL Entry Draft pick Patrick O’Sullivan for Marion Gaborik’s fellow Slovak NHL player and friend, Pavol Demitra. The Minnesota Wild NHL team finally made it back to the playoffs that year, only to be knocked out in the first round by none other than the soon-to-be Stanley Cup winners, the Anaheim Ducks, the same team that knocked them out of the Western Conference Finals in the2001-02 season. At the end of the season, the Minnesota Wild traded starting goalie Manny Fernandez to the Boston Bruins and called up goalie Josh Harding from the Minnesota Wild NHL team’s AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros. In January of 2008, the Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE) were sold to majority stakeholder Craig Leipold, a Wisconsin native and avid NHL hockey fan.