On This Day In Wild History: Doug Risebrough Hired As Wild's First General Manager

It was 24 years ago to this day when the Minnesota Wild hired Doug Risebrough to be their first general manager in franchise history. 

Risebrough served as the Wild's GM for 10 years from 1999-2009. He made many good moves in his tenure at the Wild helm like the ones listed below. 

On June 19, 2000, Risebrough announced Lemaire as the first coach in Wild history. Lemaire won eight Stanley Cups in 12 seasons as a player, all with the Montreal Canadiens. 

He also served as an assistant general manager with the Canadiens and won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and 1993. He also coached the New Jersey Devils to the 1995 championship before Risebrough hired Lemaire. 

Lemaire and Risebrough had a relationship during their playing days which led to the hiring. They were teammates when the Canadiens won four straight Stanley Cups from 1976-79.

The hiring was perfect as the defensive-minded trap specialist, Lemaire, was set to coach a brand new expansion team that needed to be as good as they could get defensively if they wanted to succeed with little scoring.

As the head coach for the Wild, Lemaire carried a 293-255-53 record in eight seasons with 55 ties. Yes, you used to be able to tie in the NHL before overtime became a thing. 

One of Lemaire and Risebrough's greatest accomplishments was the 2002-03 season when the Wild upset the 42-19-13-8 Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of the first round. 

People around the world said the Wild wouldn't even win one game, let alone the series. They also said the Wild would be lucky to score a couple of goals throughout the series against the Avalanche, who won the Stanley Cup two years earlier.

The 2002-03 Avalanche had the likes of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Rob Blake, Alex Tanguay, and Patrick Roy on their team but fell to the Wild who were once down 3-1 in the series. 

Lemaire's defensive structure and resiliency, which was embedded in the team, helped the Wild come all the back with a hard-fought 3-2 win in Game 5 and an incredible overtime win on home ice in Game 6 on the heels of Richard Park's game winner.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dePbM-fP_0[/embed]

But the most memorable goal was likely Andrew Brunette's Game 7 overtime winning goal against Patrick Roy, who is arguably one of the best goalies in NHL history.

Lemaire and the Wild continued their run with a 4-3 series win over the Vancouver Canucks, which sent them to the Western Conference finals for the first time in team history and the only time to this date today that the Wild have made it out of the second round. 

Risebrough drafted Koivu with the sixth pick in the 2001 draft. Koivu ranks fourth in that draft class in games played with 1,035. He played 1,028 of them in a Wild jersey. 

You don't usually mess up when you're picking in the top six of a draft, but it is impressive how Risebrough developed Koivu. 

With the help of Lemaire, in Koivu's first couple of seasons, the young Finnish forward quickly was molded into exactly the player Lemaire loved to coach, a two-way forward. 

In his long 16-year career, 15 years with the Wild, Koivu had six 15 or more goal seasons and seven 50 or more point seasons all while providing great shutdown ability.

Koivu was also the Wild's first longtime captain where he wore the captain patch from 2009 to 2020 and got his jersey retired on March 13, 2022. He is the first player in Wild history to have his number retired.

In only his second year in the NHL, Koivu established himself as one of the top two-way centers in the NHL. Playing in all 82 games in 2006-07, Koivu had 20 goals and 54 points while earning his first votes for the Selke Trophy, which is an award given to the NHL's best defensive forward.

He followed up his 2006-07 Selke-type season with another when he received more first-place votes in the 2007-08 Selke award. 

Koivu currently leads the Wild all-time in games played, assists, points, and shots. He ranks second in goals, power play goals, short handed goals, even strength goals and game winning goals. 

On July 1, 2006, Risebrough signed Niklas Backstrom to a one-year contract at $750,000. 

Backstrom was an undrafted goaltender who had been playing professionally in Sweden and Finland in the SHL and Liiga before coming to Minnesota.

The rest is history.

Backstrom broke onto the scene with the Wild during the 2006-07 season as a rookie where he posted a 23-8-6 record in 36 games started. 

His impressive 1.97 goals against average and .929 save percentage eventually helped the Wild win the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is an annual award given to the goalie(s), having played a minimum of 25 games for the team, with the fewest goals scored. 

The following offseason, Risebrough signed Backstrom to a two-year deal earning him $3.5 million a season. 

Backstrom then started 50 or more games in each of the next four seasons with a 71-start season in 2008-09 where he posted a 37-24-8 record with a 2.33 goals against average and a .923 save percentage. 

After his two-year deal expired, Risebrough signed Backstrom to a 4-year, $24M deal which had him earning $6 million a year. Backstrom went on to establish himself as one of the best goalies in Minnesota Wild franchise history. 

Backstrom currently ranks first all-time in wins, saves, shutouts, and minutes played amongst Wild goaltenders and ranks second in goals saved above average and save percentage. He also ranks fifth in goals against average. 

He posted a 194-142-50 career record with a 2.48 goals against average and a .915 save percentage in 409 career games across nine years with the Wild.