Meet your 2010-11 Aeros: Marco Scandella

Marco Scandella
Defense

Born: 2/23/1990 (20)
Montreal, Quebec
6'2" - 190

Shoots: Left

Scandella is the Wild's 2nd round pick from 2008 and we've seen him here a bit after his junior seasons have finished the last two seasons. Expectations are high for Marco and he seems to have fulfilled them thus far in the eyes of the Wild. I've heard nothing but good things about him coming from prospect camps and tournaments.

I've been somewhat skeptical, because he seemed lost at times during his stints with the Aeros, but maybe that's just me being a jerk. No matter how good you are, it's a jump to the pros, and especially at defense where mistakes show up on the scoreboard almost as glaringly as for goalies. So now he'll get his chance to jump into a fresh batch of players, and not a team that's been gelling (or, like last year, NOT gelling) all season.

Couple of things on Marco:

• He got a little break last season to the tune of 15 games for just about taking some poor kid's head off in an open ice hit. No big deal.
• He played on the Canadian team in the World Juniors Championship in January that took home the silver. 
• He's a shutdown defenseman, but can put up a few points.
• He won both the fastest skater and hardest shot (95 mph) at the Aeros skill competition.

I'm eager to see him play now that he's all ours and not just visiting at the end of the season. I think he's been in enough pressure situations and had enough tastes of the pro game to come in with a knowledge of where he needs to be and what he needs to do to succeed. He's progressed his game every year and is pretty sturdy, so I think he can be a great asset as long as Minnesota lets us keep him. 

Also, I promise not to call him the Italian Stallion all season. Maybe.