I wandered down to the Rec Center in St. Louis Park this morning for more of the Octagon camp, which runs through next week. Several NHLers — Keith Ballard, Ryan Malone and many others — have been skating for some time with Wild players Brent Burns, Derek Boogaard, Stephane Veilleux and Josh Harding.

But I found a couple more Wild players added to the fray.

James Sheppard. Andrew Brunette. Eric Belanger. And, guess who, but none other than Marian Gaborik!

Gaby lives, and speaks. Here’s the story in Wednesday’s editions. It was the first time Gaborik put out his voice regarding his ongoing contract extension talks with the Wild.

If you’re a Gaborik fan, the good news is there’s definitely been back and forth negotiations, which means Gaborik’s at least open to talking. But the bad news is Gaborik was noncommittal when it came to actually saying he’s going to sign long-term here.

Of course, he has to be to retain his leverage. This is after all a negotiation. But Gaborik also made clear to me that he knows his options. He knows that next summer there’s going to be “20 teams” that come after him if he becomes a free agent.

So negotiations are definitely “complicated,” according to assistant GM Tom Lynn. It’s not as simple as picking a salary out of the hat and number of years. When you’re talking about this type of term, you have to estimate how high the salary cap will get six, seven, eight years down the line, you have to try to determine what the market value for a top-10 player will be six, seven, eight years down the line. Remember, you can’t tear up a contract and renegotiate in the new NHL. And there are no performance bonuses in the new NHL.

So the Wild and Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, are in the discovery stages. Whether this ends with Gaborik signing an extension is still to be determined. But right now, they are undoubtedly talking, but this could very well go into training camp, which will undoubtedly create some kind of subplot to camp. The one thing that was clear to me is Gaborik is going to get tired talking contract publicly.

As for Gaborik’s surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip, Gaborik says he’s feeling very good and is just trying to “tune it up.” Gaborik hadn’t talked about the injury previously with the media, but Gaborik said it was a lingering problem throughout last season. And remember, he scored 42 goals and 83 points in 77 games.

He said it never got so bad where he felt he had to pull himself from the lineup in the second half, although “sometimes it was bothering me more than others.” He said it hurt at times during the playoffs, but he did not use it as an excuse for not scoring a goal against Colorado.

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Good afternoon. Just checking in before the holiday weekend.

1. The Wild has had a number of talks with the agent of longtime checking center Stephane Yelle, but right now, Yelle’s agent Larry Kelly says the Wild has informed him they are “holding off.”

Yelle, 34, a gritty character guy and terrific faceoff centerman, is a two-time Cup winner with Colorado and spent the past five seasons with Calgary. Obviously, the Wild is thin, thin, thin up the middle, and whether it’s Yelle or someone else, you’ve got to figure at some point before or during the season that the Wild will address this issue.

2. On the Wild’s first-ever Fan Forum conference call, Andrew Brunette and James Sheppard chatted with season-ticket holders Thursday. My moles tell me Sheppard announced he’s giving his No. 15 back to Brunette, who’s worn the number throughout his career and back in the day with the Wild. Sheppard will switch to No. 51.

Brian Campbell’s the only No. 51 I can think of off the top of my head in the NHL, and I’m sure he’ll bring that to Chicago. Just thought of another: Detroit’s Valtteri Filppula.

3. Josh Harding’s doing something cool. On Sept. 9, he’ll be in Vancouver with Dion Phaneuf, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Pronger, Corey Perry and L.A.’s Drew Doughty to showcase some of his best moves in EA Sports’ first on-ice capture event for the upcoming NHL09 EA game. I guess every goalie in that game will be a southpaw

Enjoy the holiday weekend, Russoville.

See below. The Wild just announced its roster for the upcoming prospect camp/tourney in Traverse City. The camp is Sept. 13-17 and will be a tournament with the Rangers, Detroit and Tampa Bay.

The maximum age for the tournament is 23. This year, players born in 1985 or later are eligible. In other words, if Ryan Jones still played for the Wild, he would not be eligible. Goalies may be older.

No player who has played regularly in the NHL is eligible. You can play a maximum of four players in a game who have played no more than one year of minor pro hockey.

One other thing: I’ve gotten a number of emails this summer regarding when the Wild will unveil its third jersey. The Wild is not having a third jersey this season but is exploring one for 2009-10.

OK one other thing: The Wild will have a mascot next season. It will be unveiled Oct. 5. The release is below the roster.

Lastly, for your amusement, the below picture was emailed to me to show me how Derek Boogaard could pound me if I write bad things about him. Of course, so could Pierre-Marc Bouchard, trust me.

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Just jumping on for a quick hello.

1. Marian Gaborik: Tom Lynn says “we’re in the process of negotiating,” so they’re not going to give a play-by-play. But that means the Wild’s made a variety of offers ranging in term.

1(a) addition. Link to Tyler Cuma feature in the Ottawa Sun. The story was written by Donny Brennan, who wrote this graph in all the Sun newspapers during the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals: The Minnepolis Star Tribune’s Mike Russo had to do some unscheduled boxers shopping when his luggage didn’t have the same success as he did in making the trip to Ottawa from Anaheim. “We have underwear in Canada,” C.J. Stevenson told him. “And it’s not all long.”

Thanks Don. And I apologize for the image, Canada and now Minnesota.

2. Kurtis Foster: I talked to him Monday. He’s been given the green light by orthopedist Joel Boyd to take a twirl on the ice. It’ll be short and painful, but it’s a start. But because Foster’s gear is at the rink and the Wild isn’t allowed in the arena because of the RNC, Foster plans to take a few more weeks before going on the ice for the first time next month. He’s still a long way off from playing obviously.

He still limps but has been without his cane for two weeks. He calls rehab a full-time job. He works out two hours in the morning, then does two hours of therapy, goes for lunch and returns for pool therapy for at least an hour three days a week. He had a lot of good anecdotes about his summer, but I’ll do a Foster story sometime next month.

3. I went out to the Octagon camp yesterday morning and there were a bunch of Wild players, other NHLers, college and high school players out there. Off the top of my head: Brent Burns, Derek Boogaard, Josh Harding, Stephane Veilleux, Mark Parrish, Florida’s Keith Ballard, New Jersey’s Paul Martin, Pittsburgh’s Aaron Boogaard and Alex Goligoski, Tampa Bay’s Mike Lundin and Brandon Bochenski, Carolina’s Tim Conboy, Chicago’s Dustin Byfuglien, the Islanders’ Tim Jackman, Erik Rasmussen, Wyatt Smith, Ben Clymer, Mike Stuart and others. Ryan Malone was there Monday. A number of high school players were there too, including Minnetonka’s Max Gardiner, the younger brother of Jake Gardiner, who is Wisconsin-bound and was drafted in the first round by Anaheim in June. More Wild players will be showing up the next three weeks as players arrive back in town. 

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Starting Monday, about 40 NHL, college and top high school players will be skating every weekday for the next three weeks at the Rec Center in St. Louis Park. The pre-training camp conditioning camp is put on by the player representation agency, Octagon.

Times are subject to change, but right now, the daily weekday skates will be from 10:30 a.m.-noon.

A number of Wild players have already started skating there — Brent Burns, Derek Boogaard — as well as several other NHLers. Last year, some players that were there off the top of my head included Marian Gaborik, Nik Backstrom, Danny Irmen, Nick Schultz, Wes Walz, Mark Parrish, Paul Martin, Keith Ballard, Thomas Vanek, Mark Hartigan, Ryan Malone, Bret Hedican and many others.

Shjon Podein and Chris McAlpine will be running the sessions.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - USA Hockey announced today that it has narrowed the list of potential sites to host the 2011 International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-20 Championship to (alphabetical order): Buffalo, N.Y., Grand Forks, N.D., and Minneapolis - Saint Paul.

“The World Under-20 Championship is a spectacular event that we’re extremely pleased to be hosting again,” said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey. “We had interest in this event from more than 20 different entities across the country. We’ve narrowed the field to three very worthy finalists and look forward to reaching a decision before the end of the year.”

The 2011 IIHF World Under-20 Championship (otherwise known as the IIHF World Junior Championship) is a 10-nation tournament featuring the top men’s ice hockey players in the world under the age of 20.

“It will be a real treat for sports fans in our country to have the World Junior Championship back in the United States,” said Ron DeGregorio, president of USA Hockey. “It’s a very special event with an extremely high level of talent.”

“The last time we hosted the World Junior Championship back in 2005, fans got to see players like Phil Kessel, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin to name just a few,” said Jim Johannson, a two-time Olympian who serves as USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations. “The bottom line for hockey fans is, outside of the Olympics, the World Junior Championship is probably the best international tournament they’ll ever get to witness.”

The United States has hosted the event four previous times, including in Grand Forks, N.D./Thief River Falls, Minn. (2005), Boston (1996), Anchorage, Alaska (1989) and Minneapolis - St. Paul (1982).