FanHouse Colton Gillies

FanHouse's Bruce Ciskie reports from Wild training camp.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It's not terribly common for a player with 300 goals and plenty of gas in the tank to try out for a team. For Petr Sykora, there may have been a tryout, but it was extremely short and equally effective.

The veteran winger agreed Thursday to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Wild, just a couple days after word leaked that he was going to be in St. Paul for a tryout during training camp.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northwest Division.

It appears we are setting up for an offseason of significant change in the Northwest Division. Only the Vancouver Canucks will have the same coach as last year, and there could be some real upheaval in terms of personnel. Not only that, but two teams (Minnesota and Colorado) have changed general managers.

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It's been pretty obvious since his consecutive games streak ended February 21. Minnesota Wild forward Andrew Brunette has only missed one game since, but he hasn't looked right since, either.

Speculation was rampant that Brunette had suffered some sort of ligament damage to his knee. Were he to have surgery, his season would likely (depending on the severity of the damage) be over. Instead, Brunette has forged ahead, continuing to be a fixture in the Wild lineup.

This is one in a series of profiles of the International Scouting Service's 2007 Top 15 NHL Draft Prospects, and relies heavily on the 2007 NHL Entry Draft Media Guide. Check back often leading up to the June 22 Entry Draft for more profiles and draft coverage and analysis.

Name: Colton Gillies
Team/League: Saskatoon/WHL
Vitals: 6'4", 189 pounds, center, shoots left
Born: February 12, 1989 in White Rock, British Columbia

The unimportant stuff: Gillies has great size, but needs to fill out some... he skates extremely well for his size and isn't afraid of contact... his defense is there, but his offense is below average right now... Central Scouting ranks him the 30th North American skater, ISS has him at 12th overall -- that's a huge disparity.

The important stuff: "Gills" is the nephew of former Islander great and Hall of Famer Clark Gillies (pictured)... patterns his game after Jarome Iginla, would invite Halle Berry to dinner and would vote for Barack Obama if given the chance (that last point may or may not be true)... his favorite TV show is "House" (there's a string of words that has never appeared together in that order before)... the most memorable game he ever watched happened less than six months ago. The most memorable game I ever watched happened before Gillies was born.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match: There may be more difference of opinion on Gillies than on any other player expected to go in the first or second round. Because of that, he'll probably end up with a team that can afford to roll the dice a bit, either because they don't have glaring needs or because they have multiple high picks. The Flyers and Blues each have two firsts this year (including the 23rd and 24th picks, respectively), and the Devils -- likely to lose the best center in the organization this summer -- could wait on Gillies' offense to come around as the restock the shelves. The winner? A big, bruising power forward with upside sounds like a good fit for the rebuilding Flyers. Welcome to the City of Brotherly Love, Colton.