Yesterday, Forbes put together yet another list that they know readers love, in this case, the top 10 sports franchises most likely to move. The NHL and the NFL tied for most teams on the list, each with three, while Major League Baseball and the NBA both placed two teams on the list.

The candidates from the NHL aren't much of a surprise. The New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Nashville Predators all made the list, and their problems are more or less familiar to folks who follow the game closely. On Long Island, a team that hasn't won a playoff round in 15 years struggles on with an aging building; in Phoenix, a Canadian refugee is struggling financially in a non-traditional market; while Nashville is just looking for a reliable owner.

But for all of Forbes well-deserved reputation for solid reporting, they are not above getting it wrong sometimes. Here's the Nashville capsule:

Predators ownership went into the season armed with a contract clause with the Nashville officials stipulating they could leave town if the team didn't draw at least 14,000 fans per game to the city-owned Sommet Center. They wound up at just over 14,900 per game. No word on whether owner Craig Leipold tried to channel Rachel Phelps (character who played the Cleveland Indians owner in Major League) in an attempt to sabotage attendance.

Last time I checked, Leipold was the former owner of the Predators, having sold the team and been approved as the new owner of the Minnesota Wild.

I have another idea for Forbes: how about a feature on the top 10 sports franchises likely to disappear in the event of a violent economic contraction? You may even get a chance to see your predictions come true in the short term!

I don't like being the bearer of bad news, but sometimes it just can't be stopped.

After all, I'm not smart enough to create the news. I just report it.

In this case, the news is not good for Minnesota Wild fans. Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has an item up in his blog tonight that may be a harbinger of bad things to come for the Wild.

The Marian Gaborik negotiations have hit a stalemate, and GM Doug Risebrough told me today he won't be signed by the Oct. 11 opener.

"Not making any headway," said Risebrough, who last month said it would be prudent to sign Gaborik, the team's all-time leading scorer, to an extension by next Saturday's season opener.

"I was trying to do something before the season. It's not happening. ... It's not going to happen by the start of the season."

Asked if he'll react by putting Gaborik on the trading block, Risebrough said, "That, I'll have to determine."

Might as well start packing the bags, Marian.

Welcome to the NHL FanHouse 2008-09 season preview. While other sites are previewing "30 teams in 30 days," we decided to take advantage of the extra time off before the start of the season to bring you all 30 previews over the next three weeks. We're counting down in reverse order of finish from last season in each conference every weekday from now until October 3. Look for an Eastern Conference preview every morning and a Western Conference preview every afternoon. Click here to read them all.

Who's In: Andrew Brunette, F (FA-COL); Owen Nolan, F (FA-CGY); Marc-Andre Bergeron, D (Trade-ANH); Marek Zidlicky, D (Trade-NSH); Antti Miettinen, F (FA-DAL); Craig Weller, F (FA-PHX)

Who's Out: Brian Rolston, F (FA-NJ); Pavol Demitra, F (FA-VAN); Todd Fedoruk, F (FA-PHX)

What's Changed: Hopefully, the Wild found some stability. General manager Doug Risebrough acknowledged he made a mistake by employing ten players in contract years last year. As a result, there was a lot of player movement over the summer. Rolston should have been re-signed during the previous off-season. Once it was clear he would test free agency, it was also clear he wouldn't be back.

Risebrough tried to make up for his blunders (too many free agents and not re-signing Rolston) by taking a stab at Marian Hossa, placing a bid for Kristian Huselius, and also making a play at a contract extension for Marian Gaborik. None of these moves have been successful, however the potential for a Gaborik deal is far from dead as of this writing.

(Of course, this hasn't stopped fans of other teams from dreaming.)

The Buffalo Sabres announced today that C/LW Paul Gaustad had surgery to repair a ligment in his right thumb. Goose prevailing wisdom was that he injured it when he jumped Marc-Andre Bergeron after Bergeron submarined Danny Paille bruising Paille's thigh in the process in Monday's exhibition game against Minnesota. That's apparently not the case according to Lindy Ruff.

"It's not something he could play through," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "It was something that came up...When we had the MRI yesterday, it was found he needed to have it operated on."

It was originally thought that Gaustad injured his thumb while taking on Marc-Andre Bergeron after the Minnesota forward laid a hit on Daniel Paille. But according to Ruff, it wasn't during the fight, but in the previous shift that Gaustad claims he hurt it.

Among the many issues surrounding the Sabres to start this season are their depth at center, on-ice leadership and toughness. Gaustad provides all of that and a whole lot more. This will be the first big test of this group in how they deal with him not being in the lineup. This is yet another example of why the NHL's pre-season schedule this year is monumemtally stupid. 20 days of camp with 7.4 games per team

Where's the training portion of training camp?

While getting re-acquainted with my favorite hockey blogs of yore in a vain attempt to catch up on the great work being done out there in the time I was away from the world I came across this recent post from D-Lee at RedBlackHockey about the rumors floating around Minnesota's Marian Gaborik. For you 'Canes fans in the audience give it a perusal. But in that post he linked to something even more ridiculous, an obvious fan article at BleacherReport trying to make the case for how the Sabres would be trading a premier player like Gaborik for spare parts like Maxim Afinogenov and Tim Connolly/Ales Kotalik. All protests to his making this stuff up out of thin air aside, Andrew Mason makes the following Eklund-esque pitch:

The Sabres, on the other hand, have plenty of cap space. They currently have nine million dollars free as of today which is a good chunk of change. They can easily sign Gaborik to a long-term deal for whatever he wants-especially if they trade Max plus either Kotalik or Connolly, which would free up an extra $5.23-6.23 million.

No way does Darth Regier trade $6 million in salary to add $7.5 million, which is what Gaborik's payout will be this year (No, this was not a front-loaded contract, as it should have been). And, while the Sabres may have a bit of cap space to work with this season they are, as of the Numminen signing, $2 million over their much-maligned personal cap of $50 million. Regier will try to get value for Max and if none is available he'll hope for a great contract season and bid him a fond farewell at the end of it.

Trading for Gaborik doesn't address the lack of center depth on this team, which wouldn't be an issue if Tim(may!) Connolly wasn't one hit away from mopping floors at a hospital... on the graveyard shift. Further stretching the feasibility of this idea is the need to extend of home-grown RW sniper Jason Pominville, who is going to cost them a pretty penny (north of $4 million for 5-6 years if they're lucky). Regier is going to be loyal to the kids he's helped groom from within. There's no way he pushes Pominville out the door to take on Gaborik, unless the Wild are paying part of the salary, which is not allowed under this CBA.

Lastly, I just don't see Regier trading one guy who can't perform in the playoffs for another at twice the price. So, in my mind this one gets a big E5 and a double helping of Mediterranean Sea Salt.

Ta,

Say what you will about Larry Brooks and his Sunday NHL column in the New York Post, there's little doubt that everyone in the league reads it -- which is probably why Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) President and CEO Tim Leiweke decided to turn to Brooks when it came to coming clean about AEG's low-profile loan to William "Boots" Del Baggio.

One of the hottest stories going in the league off the ice during this offseason has been the starting revelation that Del Baggio had some covert help when it came to financing his purchase of a minority interest in the Nashville Predators.

As most folks have read by now, Del Baggio, who seems to have been a little light in the wallet when it comes to his own cash reserves, was able to buy a piece of the Predators thanks to some creative financing from AEG, the owners of the LA Kings, and Craig Leipold, the former owner of the Predators who is now in control of the Minnesota Wild. And, as we've also subsequently discovered, the deal was pulled off without the commissioner knowing a thing about it.

From the outside looking in, it's clear Leipold was looking for any way to grease his skids out of Nashville after losing millions on the Predators, while you don't have to be a rocket scientist to conclude AEG was in on the deal to help Del Baggio gain control of the team and move it to Kansas City where another AEG-owned arena is looking for an anchor tenant.

Needless to say, the commissioner is a little miffed and is promising an investigation.

Enter Leiweke, a sports executive who has been around the block a few times.

Now that the Minnesota Wild have made the moves they're going to make in free agency, and they've bought out the contract of forward Mark Parrish, there is only one thing left to do this off-season.

Sign Marian Gaborik to a contract extension.

It's probably the biggest move the Wild will make, because it makes it perfectly clear that he's the player the Wild are going to build a championship contender around.

Gaborik is coming off a 42-goal season. It would be very smart to sign him now and keep him from entering free agency (we all saw how well that worked with Brian Rolston).

But can the Wild make it happen?

Just over a month from now, the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota will play host to the 2008 Republican National Convention for four nights. Forty-one nights out of the year (and a couple more, depending on how hard they're willing to work in the Spring), the building serves as home ice for the Minnesota Wild. The mildly disturbing image above (via Wonkette) combines the two equally entertaining events (zing!) by poorly photoshopping the GOP's traditional mascot over (we think) Wild forward James Sheppard.

Since the NHL season won't open for more than a month after John McCain and friends leave town, there can only be one explanation for the inclusion of this picture in the confab's promotional material -- a subliminal campaign by the Wild to make newly re-acquired Andrew Brunette look like a decent skater by comparison. Well-played, Minny. Well-played.

The Minnesota Wild have been quite busy in free agency.

One thing they never bothered to do was re-sign free-agent center Pavol Demitra. Instead, the Wild watched as the long-rumored deal between Demitra and the division rival Vancouver Canucks was finally made official Thursday. Demitra gets $8 million over two years.

"Throughout his NHL career, Pavol has proven himself to be an offensive contributor wherever he has played," Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis said in a statement. "Pavol is a strong two-way hockey player with excellent quickness and finish. His play-making abilities will be an asset on our power-play and make him a great addition to our top six forwards."

It's worth noting that Gillis is Demitra's longtime agent, so there may be some bias in the above.

I'm a Wild fan, so there may be some bias here, too. That's okay. We're all biased in our own little way.

I don't begrudge Demitra for leaving. In fact, I'm kind of glad he did. He was generally useless offensively for Minnesota in 2007-2008, despite it being a contract year. The 15 goals he scored marked his lowest full-season total as an NHL player, and his 54 points were the lowest he'd tallied in eight seasons.

That said, Demitra is a solid veteran addition for a team in Vancouver that is practically devoid of serious offensive upside. It's likely he will rebound from what was really not much of a season for him in Minnesota.

(Tap of the stick: Dr. Mirtle)

Well, let's just say that Wild fans hope the Wild aren't done yet.

Free agency started Tuesday, and as usual, it's anything but free. The insane money being thrown around makes you wonder how the league's personnel people got their jobs ($3.75 million a season for Jeff Finger? Really?).

In Minnesota, the Wild have developed a reputation for fiscal conservatism. There's nothing really wrong with that, but there's a bit of a problem on the Minnesota roster as of right now.

That problem? There aren't many forwards. In fact, Jacques Lemaire couldn't field four full lines right now.

Not only did Brian Rolston sign with New Jersey, but Aaron Voros went to the Rangers, and Todd Fedoruk signed with Phoenix. Yes, the Wild signed Andrew Brunette and Craig Weller, but look at the roster on the Wild's official website. Ignore the fact that they still have Voros listed.

The forwards on the team right now? Eric Belanger, Derek Boogaard, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brunette, Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu, Mark Parrish, Benoit Pouliot, James Sheppard, Stephane Veilleux, and Weller.

(Bouchard and Veilleux are restricted free agents who are expected back.)

That's eleven players, and if you think Boogaard and Weller are each playing 82 games, you're crazy.

Unless the Wild plan on taking two more minor-league prospects to camp this fall (outside of Sheppard and Pouliot), general manager Doug Risebrough needs to sign (or trade for) at least two more decent forwards. Minnesota doesn't have enough quality players to fill two solid lines as is, and that won't cut it on a team expected to take another step toward a Stanley Cup.