The Sykora Experiment cancelled

The Minnesota Wild pulled a trigger yesterday that may have surprised quite a few hockey fans, but shouldn't have come as quite as much of a shock as it did. To help clear up some space for returning defenseman Brent Burns, the Wild had to put a player on waivers. They placed two there, electing to put Robbie Earl up for grabs, along with Petr Sykora. Both players cleared, which force the Wild to make some decisions.

With Earl, it's very little shock, as he's played well, but still hasn't made a huge impact on the team. He was probably the safest player to throw onto waivers at this point, with the expectation that he would most likely clear, and then be available to be returned to Houston to continue developing. He'll probably stay up for another few days, but, if the Wild keeps getting healthy, there's a good chance he'll be Texas-bound before too long.

The Sykora issue is more interesting, and, in many ways, the Wild had a large hand in how little he ended up meshing with the team. At the start of the season, his play was mismanaged, and while the entire club was trying to figure out what they were supposed to do on the ice, Sykora and Martin Havlat were sometimes looked at the most intensely, and both players found themselves on limited ice time during that initial start. The biggest difference between where Havlat and Sykora are now? The Wild made a move to bring in Guillaume Latendresse, which gave Havlat someone to play catch with. Sykora, on the other hand, suffered a concussion, and was limited in his ice time returning, never really developing a groove and never truly gaining the confidence of his coach.

Here's the thing. To be effective, Sykora needs to be a top six forward. When he didn't click with Havlat at the start of the season, he should have been rotated with the remaining top forwards at that time. Odds are, he would have fit well with one of them, and the suspicion is that a line featuring Sykora, Mikko Koivu, and Andrew Brunette could have been deadly if given the chance to mesh. The concussion came at the worst possible time for the Wild to determine if he would fit anywhere, and, when he finally did return, he was buried on a line with Andrew Ebbett and Derek Boogaard, which is honestly no place for a goal scorer of his caliber to be.

Now the Wild has to make a decision. When Sykora first signed with the Wild, there was a stipulation in place that would allow him to head to a Russian-league team, but there are currently no teams there looking to bring him on board. He could be assigned to Houston, but the odds are that he wouldn't report, which certainly wouldn't help anyone. The Wild could try and throw him on re-entry waivers, and see if a team wants to bite at half of his salary cap hit, instead of his full hit. Or Minnesota could feverishly work the phones, find an amicable trade, and wish Sykora well on his way to a new NHL team. For all involved, that would seem to be the best option, and with the trade deadline fast approaching, and the Olympic freeze coming even sooner, the Wild have less time than they might like to make something happen.

Depending on what the Wild does try and work for a trade might also be an indication of which way the team feels that they're heading, with regards to the playoffs. By the same token, Sykora is the type of player who can make an impact on almost any team in the league. It's just too bad that he was never able to do so with the Minnesota Wild.