Minnesota Wild Time Line page 37

[September 2, 1999] --

    SAINT PAUL/MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Minnesota 
    Wild CEO Jac Sperling today announced the National     
    Hockey League (NHL) club has named Doug Risebrough 
    (pronounced Rise-brow) as the team's first-ever 
    Executive Vice President/General Manager to a
    long-term deal.  As per club policy, no terms of 
    the contract were disclosed.  

Risebrough, 45 (1/29/54), will be responsible for overseeing the entire Minnesota Wild hockey operations including all matters relating to the club's coaching staff, scouting department, player personnel and minor league personnel.He will report directly to Sperling.

"Doug Risebrough's NHL background makes him a great selection as the Minnesota Wild's first General Manager," said Sperling. "I am very confident he will quickly build the Wild into one of the NHL's elite clubs."

Risebrough won four consecutive Stanley Cup championships as a player with the Montreal Canadiens from 1976 to 1979. He also appeared in the Stanley Cup finals twice with the Calgary Flames. In 1986, the Flames, captained by Risebrough, lost in the Stanley Cup finals to the Canadiens. In 1989, Risebrough served as an assistant coach on the Flames only Stanley Cup championship team. He has participated in the Stanley Cup playoffs 23 of the 25-years he has been in the League as a player, coach and executive.

"I am extremely excited to be given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the Minnesota Wild into a franchise that will bring the Stanley Cup to the great hockey fans in this state," said Risebrough. "The Wild has had tremendous success with their grass roots approach so far and I look forward to the challenge of carrying that success over to the New Saint Paul Arena next season."

Risebrough spent the past three seasons as the Edmonton Oilers Vice President of Hockey Operations. With the Oilers, Risebrough oversaw all hockey operations, including the team's scouting department and minor league personnel. While serving as Vice President of Hockey Operations, Edmonton advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs all three years, following four consecutive years in which the Oilers did not make the playoffs. The 1999-2000 season will mark Risebrough's 26th season in the NHL.

After announcing his retirement as a player following the 1986-87 season, Risebrough served two seasons as an assistant coach with the Flames. He helped guide Calgary to two consecutive President Cup Trophies and the 1989 Stanley Cup title, his fifth Stanley Cup championship as a player or coach. He was promoted to Assistant General Manager for the Flames' 1989-90 season and served as Calgary's head coach for the 1990-91 season. On May 16, 1991, Risebrough became only the second general manager in Flames' history and served as both general manager and coach for the first 64 games of the 1991-92 season before relinquishing the coaching duties on March 3, 1992. He served as the Flames' general manager until November 2, 1995. Risebrough assisted the Canadian National Team in a variety of roles during the 1995-96 season before joining the Oilers on October 21, 1996.

Risebrough was the Montreal Canadiens 1st pick (7th overall) in the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft. In eight seasons with the Canadiens, he helped Montreal win four consecutive Stanley Cup championships from '76-79. Risebrough was traded to Calgary on September 11, 1982 and spent the next five seasons with the Flames.

During his tenure with Calgary, Risebrough served as the Flames' captain for four seasons. He made an appearance in his fifth Stanley Cup final as a player in 1986 as the Flames lost to his former Montreal teammates.

In 740 career NHL games, Risebrough scored 471 points with 185 goals and 286 assists. He added 21 goals and 37 assists in 124 career Stanley Cup playoff games. During his 13-year tenure, teams on which Risebrough played recorded a .660 regular season winning percentage (607-274-159).

A native of Guelph, Ontario, Doug enjoys spending time outdoors camping, canoeing,fishing, hiking and golfing. He and his wife, Marilyn, have two daughters, Lindsay and Allison.

Risebrough will begin his new role immediately.

The Minnesota Wild will begin play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the 2000-2001 NHL season. For more information on Minnesota Wild season tickets and club seats, call (651) 222-WILD (9453).

TRANSCRIPT OF DOUG RISEBROUGH PRESS CONFERENCE

[September 2, 1999] -- Minnesota Wild GM Press Conference
Question/Answer Session
Thursday, September 2nd, 1999

1. Q. What about the coaching staff? Charlie Walters
A. Doug Risebrough: I don't see the need for a coaching staff right now. The most important thing is assembling a staff the can scout amateur and pro levels and I am interested in taking some time to look at the coaching pool out there and see what's available. As you know, in the coaching business they are always becoming available. But if a coach comes on earlier it will be because he has some recruiting skills and he can see some players too. So I'm not really looking at a coach, but I'm certainly being open-minded to see what's out there. But there could be one before there's a team.

2. Q. When do you think you'll get hockey front office staff? John Millea, Star Tribune
A. I didn't come here with the idea of 'who's going to come with me.' I've been in contact with people-I've been out in the field for the past three years-I know a lot of people, so I'm going to look at who's out there. See who's under contract and who's not. Certainly there will be calls there and there's resumes already in the office and just look through that and start hiring people. But certainly the season is going to be underway shortly so we are going to have to move in a direction to get some people.

4. Q. Was their any compensation to Edmonton? Gary Olson, Pioneer Press
A. Jac Sperling: I'm not going to talk about the terms of that, but let's just say Glen (Sather) didn't get to be one of the best GM's in the league by being a roll-over kind of guy. But I want to tell you, also, that he is a very tough negotiator and he has trained Doug well. That wasn't the toughest conversation I had.

5. Q. Do you feel like this, time frame, would it be easier if it happened six weeks ago? John Millea, Star Tribune A. Doug Risebrough: I don't see that as an inhibitor at all. Like I said, I didn't even consider that. My background with the Edmonton Oilers has been for the last three years has been 90% of my job during the year has been to look at players, to pro scout. I have been running a pro-scouting staff for them that consists of three people. I put a computer program together for them. I've reviewed all amateur levels of all the players in the different organizations and worked really closely with Glen in the number of trades that we've made. So for just me alone, I've probably seen over 400 games. So I felt like I will have the best chance to see players this year since your starting. The best year, to some degree, to be out in the field seeing players. And I've made enough contacts with people and worked with people that I don't feel that it's going to be an inhibitor at all. Will the staff all be here in a week? Probably not. The staff is going to evolve. I'm looking at trying to put people in place that are a good fit with me and it's going to take time to find out and some of that is going to take time for people to be available.

6. Q. Will any of the staff be here in a week?
A. Doug Risebrough:I'm not sure of that.

7. Q. Do you have any feeling about Herb Brooks? Charlie Walters, Pioneer Press
A. Doug Risebrough: I have a good relationship with Herb even though it didn't work out that I came here 28 years ago. I've always enjoyed talking to Herb. I have to look at seeing the fit. That's the key thing, you have to see the fit and where it works-giving people job descriptions and giving roles and responsibilities. So I'm not excluding anybody. I'm just looking at what's out there.

8. Q. Will you take any staff from Edmonton? Tom Powers

A. Doug Risebrough: Glen has been really fair to me. He's been really fair to his staff. He has never really opposed anyone from improving positions. I have had to deal with that generosity because I've ended up hiring people he has let move on. So he's a guy who has a great, great understanding that people want to do more and if they don't have a clear path there and there's something preventing them from getting a better position, then he let's them move. He just said don't take too many.

9. Q. To what do you attribute your success?
A. I have to say somewhat being fortunate. I know there's a lot of players that have played in this game and a lot of players that were outstanding people and great commitment to the game, but I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I learned very clearly when I left Montreal that not all the players on a winner were a winner and not all the players on a loser were a loser, so it's just are they team players? I think that's a big thing. Do they accept a role in a team? I feel very fortunate that I have been able to play a role in some of those teams and seen roles change. The role I had in Montreal was a lot different than the role in Calgary. It's been great to be able to observe. I think that's the most exciting thing for me at this time in my career is I now have a chance to put all those pieces together to try to build that winner. It's a hard thing to explain, but it's a gut feel. When you get a gut feel you know you got the right people.

10. Q. Do you feel you're better prepared to be a GM? Gary Olson, Pioneer Press
A There's no doubt about that. My last stint as a general manager was a great personal voyage. I learned an awful deal about Doug Risebrough and about how hard you had to work and how tough you had to be. I learned an awful lot about players from a different role than when I was a player. My rise in Calgary was in five years from being a player to a general manager/coach of the team and so the best thing that happened to me was Calgary. The next best thing was Edmonton and being able to sit back and watch somebody work who had that formula and work specifically in the hockey development side, specifically in the recruitment side and brush up on player recruitment and the best thing that's happened to me today is joining the Wild and getting a chance to implement all that.

11. Q. To what do you attribute all the coaches and GM's from Montreal? Tom Powers, Pioneer Press
A. That got brought up when Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis were here and then Larry Robinson moved on. I think winning is a inspiring thing, a fun thing and that team in 240 games only lost something like 29 regular season games. So it became a standard and I think it was fun and a taste people liked and they wanted to move on and they imparted it and I think a lot of organizations were hungry for it. I know in Calgary they were very hungry for it and I had a great chance to work with Bob Johnson there, but Bob used to use me as a yard stick-almost embarrassingly sometimes. But it's a good feeling and people have a great impression on organizations that don't have it.

MINNESOTA WILD GENERATES $27,500 FOR MINNESOTA YOUTH HOCKEY PROGRAMS

[September 14, 1999] -- The Minnesota Wild, in conjunction with Target Center, are proud to donate the U S WEST FACE-OFF '99 net game proceeds plus additional contributions totaling $27,500 to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC) SUPER SKATERS learn to skate program, Mariucci Inner City Hockey Association, DinoMights and the Minnesota Hockey (formerly Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association) Diversity Program. These four programs provide thousands of underserved kids throughout Minnesota the opportunity to learn to skate and to play the sport of hockey.

For more information on Minnesota Wild Grass Roots Initiatives please call (651) 222-WILD.