Lightning struck

It's official. A player who made a permanent mark on the Minnesota Wild during his career (and, arguably, left a larger mark when he announced his retirement last season) has moved on. Wes Walz, one of the men who helped create Minnesota hockey and then drove fans up the wall during his personal leave, is headed to Tampa. Not as a player, but as an assistance coach for new team head, Barry Melrose. According to all reports, Melrose was very interested in a recently retired player as an assistant, and he's been very impressed with the Minnesota system.

When Walz announced his retirement, it was only a matter of time before he returned to the game, and a lot of people knew it. It also wasn't much of a shock that he ended up behind a bench, although the expediency of the whole thing is a little surprising. Of course, Minnesota fans could have held out hope that, like Brad Bombardir and Darby Hendrickson before him, Walz would have stayed with the team in some capacity. However, the man wanted to become an assistant coach, and, with Mike Ramsey and Mario Tremblay backing up Jacques Lemaire, there just wasn't space on the Wild bench.

We wish Wes the best of luck in Tampa, and we're not ashamed to admit that we're hoping to see him down the road in the Cup finals. After all, the Lightning are in the opposing conference.