The Wild’s 2025 training camp began two weeks ago with several important questions facing the franchise as a whole, and coach John Hynes in particular.

The biggest of those questions was answered this week when star forward Kirill Kaprizov agreed to an eight-year, $136 million contract extension. And as camp has progressed and the roster has been reduced, more things have come into sharper focus. But as the Wild prepared for their final preseason game Friday in Chicago, Hynes admitted there are a few more things he wants to find out.

One question was answered when newly acquired center Nico Sturm (back) was a full participant in practice Thursday at TRIA Rink. With Sturm ready to center the fourth line and take key faceoffs, the Wild look set down the middle less than a week before their Oct. 9 season opener debut in St. Louis.

The questions Hynes wants answers about on Friday have more to do with the wingers, especially after losing veteran Mats Zuccarello for 7 to 8 weeks. “It would be what are we going to do on the wings and what are the (line) combinations?” the coach said.

While Sturm’s return was good news, there was no substantive news on defenseman Jonas Brodin, who has been a full participant in practice but remains questionable for the season opener.

“I would say that he’s stagnated a little bit, just in the sense that he’s still in contact, but not full contact,” Hynes said. “It’s nice that he’s out here with uncontrolled pressure, uncontrolled battles. … So, we’ll just see how he keeps progressing.”

Hynes and Chicago coach Jeff Blashill are long-time friends and in a text message exchange, Blashill told him the Blackhawks will play something close to their regular season lineup in a 7:30 p.m. puck drop Friday at the United Center.

Erik Johnson calls it a career

Years from now, defenseman Erik Johnson will still be remembered as the Minnesotan picked higher than any other in the NHL Draft. In fact, his record can be tied but never broken. On Thursday Johnson, 37, announced his retirement following 17 seasons in the NHL, which included a 2022 Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche.

Originally from Bloomington, Johnson played two seasons of prep hockey at Holy Angels in Richfield before two more seasons with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Michigan. Drafted first overall by St. Louis in 2006, he became the first American defenseman to be the first overall selection. First, he played one season with the Gophers, winning a WCHA title under coach Don Lucia.

Johnson spent four years with the Blues, then was traded to Colorado. Late in his career, Johnson spent a season in Buffalo and two in Philadelphia before officially retiring as a member of the Avalanche. He also was a member of the silver medal-winning U.S. Olympic Team at the 2010 games in Vancouver.

Briefly

Former Wild wing Zach Parise will be honored by his alma mater prior to North Dakota’s game versus Miami (Ohio) on Feb. 14 at Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks. He will be the 10th player recognized with the school’s “One More Shift” program, during which alumni skate with the current team during warmups and stand with them during the national anthem.

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St. Paul Park officials last week approved the final plat for a new housing subdivision, the first in the city since the mid-1980s.

Homebuilder Lennar Corp. plans to build 61 single-family homes on 30 acres located east of the railroad tracks and south of Summit and Ashland avenues. Construction of homes in the development, called Geneva Meadows, will begin in late 2025 or early 2026, with first closing expected to be in the spring of 2026, said Danielle Tocco, vice president of communications at Lennar Corp.

Home prices are expected to start in the low- to mid-$400,000 range, she said.

Lennar plans to extend Lincoln and Summit avenues south into the property, and the home sites will be accessed from those roads, which would then connect on the south end of the development.

New city adminstrator

St. Paul Park, population 5,600, is “poised to take off and do some really cool things with people coming and the community growing,” said City Administrator Hugo McPhee, who was hired this summer after former city administrator Kevin Walsh resigned.

St. Paul Park City Administrator Hugo McPhee (Courtesy of Hugo McPhee)

Prior to joining St. Paul Park, McPhee, 60, of Bloomington, served as a consultant for Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Safety Management.

He also previously worked as deputy city manager of Burnsville; served as the executive director of the state’s Private Detective and Protective Agent Services Regulatory Board and was the director of public safety of the Three Rivers Park District in the western suburbs.

McPhee has a master’s degree in management with an emphasis in human resources from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and a bachelor’s degree in business from Marian College in Fond du Lac, Wis.

McPhee said he was interested in the St. Paul Park position, in part, because of the opportunity to mentor emerging leaders at city hall.

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“The city has had some turnover, and this was a chance to work with new department heads and ensure we’re dialed into the community,” he said. “I wanted to get back to working in a small community and connecting city services with residents.”

Among the new hires: interim police chief Craig Elgin, who took over from former Police Chief Jessica Danberg, who resigned in May; Public Works Superintendent Tony Brinkman, who was promoted in January after the resignation of Jeff Dionisopoulos, and Finance Director Dawn Monahan, the former assistant city manager and finance director in Berry, Vt., who was hired after the former finance director, Melody Santana-Marty, resigned in April.

McPhee’s annual salary is $155,000.

Windfall Equestrian Center in Stillwater will host an open house Saturday, Oct. 4, to introduce a new equine therapy program for veterans and at-risk youth.

The event aims to show how individuals can get involved, either as participants who could benefit from therapy or as volunteers supporting their mission.

The open house runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature a horse soccer game to demonstrate the trust and communication skills in equine therapy.

Attendees can participate in pony rides, interactive games, crafts and horsemanship activities like grooming and feeding.

Admission is free and open to the public, though some activities, like the pony rides, require paid tickets. All proceeds will support the center’s programs.

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Equine therapy involves a licensed mental health professional and a horse working together to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression, according to the center. Their mission is to offer hope, healing, compassion and strength to veterans and youth.

Open house activities will give people the chance to connect with the horses in a low-pressure and comfortable environment, said Jennifer Collman, the executive director and equine specialist at Windfall Equine Therapy Center. People also will experience the powerful bond between humans and horses, she said.

A Columbia University study enrolled 63 veterans with PTSD in equine therapy. Participants attended weekly 90-minute sessions over eight weeks and more than half showed a marked reduction in PTSD and depression both immediately after treatment and at a three-month follow up, according to the study authors.

The therapy center offers equine therapy sessions for veterans from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 7, 14, 21 and 28. The sessions are supported by donations.

Windfall Equestrian Center is at 3843 Oakgreen Ave. N. in Stillwater. Find more information at windfallequestriancenter.us.

A 15-month-old girl died after being left alone on a balcony at a Roseville apartment building and falling more than two stories, charges filed against her parents say.

Aisha Ali, 30, and Hanad Hassan Jama, 35, face two counts each of second-degree manslaughter in connection with the fall at the apartment in the 2600 block of Lexington Avenue, south of County Road C2, the afternoon of July 6.

They were charged in Ramsey County District Court by summons and have first appearances scheduled for Nov. 5. Attorneys are not listed in their court case files.

The criminal complaints give the following account:

A man called 911 just before 2 p.m. after he and his fiancee saw the girl lying on the driveway outside of the building’s garage. She was unresponsive, with a large and bleeding abrasion to her head.

More than two stories directly above the child was a balcony with vertical metal bars with gaps between them. The balcony’s sliding glass door was partly open, and the screen door was torn and off the track.

As medics treated the toddler, a young child crawled through the safety bars, held onto the outside of the balcony and watched the activity below. Officers yelled for the child to go inside, and eventually the child did but remained by the open door. A woman retrieved the child and went back inside.

Officers went to the apartment, where Ali opened the door. She was with two children, ages 2½ and 5, and called Jama, who arrived several minutes later.

The toddler was transported to the hospital, where Ali told officers she had been taking a shower and believed that Jama was caring for the children. The shower stalls were later found to be completely dry, the complaint says.

She acknowledged that the screen door was off its track and had a small tear, though not as large as the one that officers had seen, the complaint says.

Jama told officers that he had been home a short time earlier. He said Ali told him that she was going to shower and that he told her he was returning to work, then left.

The girl was pronounced dead the day after the fall, with the cause determined to be multiple traumatic injuries.

‘Warned of the danger’

The fiancé of the 911 caller told an investigator that as they waited for first responders, they saw the second child standing by the balcony door, with no adult in sight. She said the balcony’s sliding door and screen had been broken for several months; she said that she noticed it whenever she entered the garage.

A maintenance worker told an investigator that at least three times in the prior year, he had seen children hanging out of the balcony and that their parents had “repeatedly been warned of the danger,” the complaint says.

Building management provided records corroborating the accounts, including a recorded phone call in August 2024, when a staff member told Jama: “You have two small children that are … hanging out of the window … hanging outside of the window above the garage … I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

In another recorded call the next month, a staff member told Ali: “We currently have your, I believe it’s your daughter, hanging out the balcony … over the garage door. … This isn’t the first time, we actually have multiple people and pictures of this, so please make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Follow-up statements

A child protection investigator conducted a follow up interview with the parents. Ali said the children had been watching TV while she prepared to take a shower. When asked about her statement to police that she was showering, she said that she had been confused and distraught. She said Jama had been home and that she assumed he would stay for a while, the complaint says.

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Jama said he had arrived home during a break from work and found the children watching TV. He said he made them lunch, during which time Ali had gone into the bedroom. He said he called out to her that he was leaving — adding he was not certain she heard him — and then left. He said he assumed that she would be present to watch them, the complaint says.

Jama said the reports about the children hanging out of the balcony unsupervised were false. He said the family had repeatedly asked management to fix the screen door. Management denies this, and records show no such requests, the complaint says.

The building’s policy provided to Ali and Jama included the requirement that “windows, blinds and screens damaged or broken in Resident’s unit during residency shall be repaired,” the complaint states.