So everybody and their brother's uncle's cousin's monkey's hedge-trimmer assumes that the Minnesota Wild are going to sign Thomas Vanek as an unrestricted freeagent, and as we've already gotten several, "Craig Leipold and the Wild Will Not Be Over-spent" spiels regarding Vanek and Suter-and-Parise before them (which are, of course, TOTALLY NOT COLLUSION), here's Eddie Olczyk talking to the Pioneer Press's Charley Walters about Vanek's pluses and minuses:

"I love Thomas Vanek," Ed Olczyk said. "It's hard to find difference makers. He's certainly one of those guys, especially on the power play. There aren't many guys better in the league on the power play than Thomas Vanek."

Olczyk, who played 16 NHL seasons as a center, was an NBCSN-TV analyst for the Wild-Blackhawks playoff series.

"The interesting thing (regarding Vanek) is that the Eastern Conference is a different animal than the West, with the up and down, the skating. The East is a quicker conference, much quicker," Olczyk said. "That would be the only thing (of concern) with me with Vanek. But he's a proven 30-goal scorer. How many 30-goal scorers are there in the NHL? Not a lot. But especially on the power-play -- he's so good in front of the net, has a willingness to go to the front of the net. You need a goal on the power play, the puck finds him."

The Wild have been deficient on the power play.