Almost the entire roster was on hand in Frisco today. The latest players to join the morning skates included Brad Richards, Steve Ott, Mark Fistric, Krys Barch and Brandon Segal. The only guys I haven’t seen so far are James Neal, Nicklas Grossman, Adam Burish and the two guys who are going to battle for the backup goalie position - Andrew Raycroft and Brent Krahn.

Brad Lukowich and Francis Wathier were there today. Several players that will play in Traverse City starting this weekend have started to arrive as well. Colton Sceviour, Tyler Beskorowany, Tomas Vincour, Ondrej Roman and Mathieu Tousignant were among the guys skating today.

I got a chance to talk with Tom Wandell, who had ACL surgery in late January. He said he’s been skating for about three-and-a-half weeks now and is good to go. He said having been through ACL surgery before helped him in the recovery process this time around.

“It helped me a lot,” he said. “I am more patient now than I was before. I knew that I could not go on the ice too early and do the stuff that I usually do. It takes time and patience.”

Talked to Ott about the offseason changes, particularly the departures of Mike Modano and Marty Turco.

“It’s never fun to lose brothers. When you’ve been around them so long they become family and when they leave it’s never easy or never fun,” Ott said. “For the organization to move forward now with great up and coming young players like Jamie Benn and James Neal, these kids need a lot of ice time to see what they can do. Given that extra opportunity, I think we’re going to see big things out of them. Kari [Lehtonen] looks healthy, he looks great and he’s ready to go as well. I think it’s an exciting, new and energized team compared to an older group that was maybe falling to the wayside a little.”