Wild has a frontrunner for the GM position!

The Minnesota Wild’s search for a new general manager got somewhat controversial on Tuesday when the team held an interview with a current NHL general manager, Don Waddell the GM of the Carolina Hurricanes.

But wait, there’s more… 

It seems that now, Waddell has become their frontrunner for the open position. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, “Waddell came here yesterday; he interviewed for the job in the morning… From talking to multiple sources around the team, Craig Leipold’s feedback about Waddell was that he hit it out of the park with his interview.”

This should be interesting. 

For what it’s worth, Waddell still managed to pull a trade for the Canes while meeting with the Wild’s crew Tuesday. When asked about the meeting, Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon didn’t seem worried about it: 

“Even if he had a contract I would let him interview, so what’s the difference?” Dundon said to the News Observer. “It’s not going to stop somebody from doing whatever’s better for them. If they’re going to pay somebody more money, I’m not going to stop them. I told him he’s got to do what’s best for him.”

He went on to say to NHL.com that expects Waddell to remain with the organization despite outside interest from the Wild. 

"Yeah, I expect Don to be the GM of the team for a while," Dundon said. "To me, he's employed by the Carolina Hurricanes. He's employed and he's not going anywhere as far as I'm concerned. So the whole contract thing, I don't understand it.…I have found this weird since I got into the hockey business that the business people all have contracts. I never had contracts with the people that worked for me. It was just, 'If you do a good job (and) I like you, you'll work here, and I'll treat you fair.'"

However, Dundon might be getting worried now…