The contract extension Kevin Garnett, 38, will sign with the Timberwolves this summer will be for two years. During that period, Garnett and Wolves president-coach Flip Saunders are expected to try to form a group to buy the team from Glen Taylor.

Garnett has amassed more than $325 million in salaries during 20 seasons in the NBA. Saunders, who turns 60 on Monday, has made an estimated $40 million during 17 seasons as a NBA coach.

The Wolves, for whom Taylor paid $88 million in 1994, were valued at $625 million last January by Forbes. Taylor, who turns 74 in April, is amenable to taking in more limited partners. But he’s not interested in selling his team until he finds out what the Atlanta Hawks, who are for sale and currently are taking bids, end up going for.

It’s clear, though, considering the NBA’s new $24 billion, nine-year media rights deal that begins next year, that Garnett and Saunders will need considerably more wherewithal to buy the Wolves.

Taylor doesn’t know what his team will be worth then, but it will be a lot more than it is now.

Meanwhile, word is Garnett has matured since his days in Minnesota, where he was paid nearly $200 million by Taylor and in his final days with the Wolves seemed unappreciative. If Garnett, who is being paid $12 million this season, has indeed grown up, he and Taylor could improve a relationship that once became strained. Money talks.

As for Saunders returning to coach the Wolves next season, Taylor and Saunders still haven’t talked about that scenario. But the Wolves owner is open to either possibility.

It will be interesting to see whether the Garnett acquisition, which could translate into more victories, adversely affects the Wolves’ chances in June’s NBA draft lottery.

Resuming play after the all-star break last week, the Wolves’ odds of winning this season’s NBA championship were 10,000 to 1, according to MyTopSportsbooks.com.

Former Wolves coach Dwane Casey of Toronto was 15-to-1 odds to win NBA coach of the year. Minnesota native David Joerger, who Saunders tried to pry from Memphis last summer, also is 15-to-1.

The Wolves’ Andrew Wiggins, at 1-to-15, is the clear favorite to win rookie of the year and has been for months.

The Wolves report more than 300 deposits for new season tickets for 2015-16.

The Wild’s resurgence has come because the team no longer is playing on the “middle of its feet,” Eddie Olczyk said.

Olczyk might be the NHL’s best analyst. The former Chicago Blackhawks center, who is analyst for the Blackhawks as well some national NHL telecasts, was in town recently to work a Wild game against Chicago. He was asked to evaluate the Wild’s play as it tries to get into the playoffs after its abysmal start.

“If you don’t have goaltending in this league, you’re not going to win — they weren’t getting saves,” said Olczyk, also a former coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher traded with Phoenix for Devan Dubnyk, and the team has made a gallant attempt to get out of the deep hole poor goaltending had dug for it.

“It’s tough enough to play in this league, but you’ve also got to play in the middle of your feet — you want to be on your toes,” Olczyk said. “I’m not zeroing in on the goaltending, but you can’t give up a bad goal a game. (The Wild) isn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut.

“Now all of a sudden they’ve got a guy (Dubnyk) they have a lot of confidence in.”

Middle of your feet?

“All teams go through it,” Olczyk said. “When you’re unsure or you don’t have confidence, you just play in the middle of your feet. In this league, you can’t do that — you’ve either got to play on your toes or you’ve got to retreat. You can’t be in between.

“It’s the mind-set of a team — when you’re up ice and see that puck, you go, ‘I don’t know if I should (go for it) because I might give up (a goal). You can’t be in between — if you’re going to win, you’ve got to play aggressive.”

Among former Twins with other teams as spring training begins: Delmon Young and J.J. Hardy, Baltimore; David Ortiz, Craig Breslow, Boston; Garrett Jones, Yankees; Grant Balfour, Alexi Casilla, Tampa Bay; R.A. Dickey, Liam Hendriks, Danny Valencia, Toronto; Jesse Crain, White Sox; Anthony Swarzak, Jeff Manship, Cleveland; Joe Nathan, Detroit; Yohan Pino, Kendrys Morales, Kansas City.

Samuel Deduno, Pat Neshek, Alex Presley, Houston; Drew Butera, Angels; Sam Fuld, Oakland; A.J. Pierzynski, Atlanta; Michael Cuddyer, Mets; Ben Revere, Kevin Slowey, Darin Mastroianni, Philadelphia; Denard Span, Wilson Ramos, Washington; Jose Mijares, Cincinnati; Matt Garza, Kyle Lohse, Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee.

Francisco Liriano, Vance Worley, Pedro Florimon, Deolis Guerra, Pittsburgh; LaTroy Hawkins, Justin Morneau, Colorado.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has four Super Bowl championship rings. He can thank Al Nuness that his collection is complete.

It has been well chronicled that while Kraft was visiting Russia in 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin pocketed the Super Bowl ring Kraft was wearing, worth a reported $25,000, after Kraft took it off to show it to him. Then Putin walked away.

Kraft needed a replacement ring, so he called Nuness, a former Gophers basketball captain who was VP of sports sales for Bloomington-based Jostens, which through the NFL made the rings for the Patriots.

“Putin assumed Mr. Kraft was giving it to him,” Nuness recalled with a laugh last week. “Mr. Kraft called me and said, ‘Hey, Putin took my ring.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘He took my ring. How do I get another one? What do I do?’ ”

Nuness had headed the Jostens design team that also determined the cost of the rings. Today, he is 69 and still consults for Jostens.

“We never throw away the mold of the rings,” Nuness said. “When (Kraft) called, we pulled his mold and remade his ring.”

Kraft was greatly appreciative.

“Absolutely,” Nuness said. “He’s a great individual.”

The architect of the Milwaukee Bucks’ No. 2-ranked defense is former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas star guard Sean Sweeney, 30, who is in his fourth year in the NBA and destined to become a head coach. Sweeney’s Bucks — in his first season under coach Jason Kidd — already have doubled their victory total (15) from last season.

Corey Brewer, who shot 19.5 percent (8 for 41) from three-point range with the Timberwolves this season before being traded to Houston in December, is shooting 32.8 percent (39 of 119) from the arc for coach Kevin McHale‘s Rockets.

Five North Stars goalies — Don Beaupre, Jon Casey, Pete LoPresti, Cesare Maniago and Gilles Meloche — will make the Wild’s “Let’s Play Hockey” call against St. Louis on March 21 at the Xcel Energy Center.

St. Thomas basketball coach Johnny Tauer, 42, who is a popular psychology professor at the school, and his ability to motivate were featured in a lengthy New York Times story last week.

Former Minnehaha Academy star John McLean Jr. of Eagan, a 6-foot-8 junior goaltender for Gustavus Adolphus, had 68 saves in a pair of victories over first-place St. Thomas to become the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s hockey player of the week.

By the way, Maple Grove’s Drew Aspinwall, who is a nephew of former Gophers basketball great Trent Tucker, is a standout hockey player for the Gusties. Tucker, who is athletics director for the City of Minneapolis, attends many Gusties games.

It’s a baby boy, William Robert, for former Gophers basketball center Bob and Suzy Martin. Bob Martin, the 7-foot former Apple Valley star who was a Mr. Basketball Minnesota finalist in 1988, is in the insurance business in Phoenix.

The MinuteMen Mr. Hockey Minnesota finalist Jack Sadek of Lakeville North, committed to the Gophers, is the son of former Gophers QB Brett Sadek and grandson of former Gophers-Twins-Giants catcher Mike Sadek and late Gophers QB Bob Sadek. Jack is expected to be the highest-picked Minnesota prep player in June’s NHL draft, probably in the third round.

North St. Paul’s Stephanie Anderson has earned a roster spot on the U.S. national women’s hockey team that will compete in the world championships next month in Sweden.

Bob Suter, late father of the Wild’s Ryan Suter, will have his 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey jersey raised to the rafters on Sunday in Lake Placid, N.Y., televised by NBC as part of its “Hockey Day in America” coverage, including the big Wild-Dallas 7 p.m. game.

New general manager at Northfield Golf Club will be well-respected Dan Dols, former pro and manager of Cold Spring Golf Club.

Aaron Doepner has left the ticket sales department after 13 years with the Twins to spend more time with his family and has taken a position with Lube Tech in the Twin Cities.

Marc Morgan, who has been with the Vikings for 14 years, is leaving for Gopher Sports Properties to become director of sales for University of Minnesota athletics, beginning Monday.

The Twins’ Class AAA Rochester (N.Y.) Red Wings club will provide a free ticket to a later game this season if the temperature on Opening Day (April 11) against Buffalo doesn’t reach 50 during the game. It was minus-4 last week.

Ex-Viking Matt Birk, who is director of football development for the NFL, has become a member of “Insightful Player,” which features inspiring stories of NFL role models for youth. Also a member is former Cowboy Roger Staubach.

Nearly 200 national and international curlers will compete in the St. Paul International Bonspiel at the St. Paul Curling Club next weekend.

Left wing Mario Lucia, son of Gophers men’s hockey coach Don Lucia and the second-round draft pick of the Wild three years ago, leads Notre Dame in goals with 18 in 32 games and has 25 points.

Former Gopher, North Star and Fighting Saint Billy Butters will speak Friday evening at Golden Valley Country Club.

St. Paul Saints President Mike Veeck will speak at the Spare Key Groove Gala children’s fundraiser at Aria in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Gophers sophomore golfer Jose Mendez finished in a tie for 13th in the recent Latin American Amateur Championship in Buenos Aires. Had he won, he would have received an invitation to the Masters tournament at Augusta National in April.

Mendez, though, is just 19 and will have more chances. He is ranked the No. 40 amateur golfer at all ages in the world.

Only James McLean, the 1998 NCAA champion, has a better career stroke average (71.11) at Minnesota than Mendez (71.21).

Mendez, who last fall also competed in Japan and Mexico, last year was named the Costa Rica national athlete of the year, besting players on his country’s soccer team, which made it to the semifinals of the World Cup.

Mendez, the No. 1 player for the defending Big Ten champion Gophers, plays forged Titleist blade irons.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Best bet is that the Vikings will end up with a third-round 2015 draft pick by trading Adrian Peterson, plus a conditional pick for 2016 based on performance. Super Bowl champion New England remains a potential destination for Peterson.

Tom Lehman, the former Gophers golfer, probably would have received serious consideration to captain the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team that will compete at home-state Hazeltine National had the 2006 Ryder Cup captain’s team not been soundly defeated by the Europeans at the K Club in Kildare, Ireland.

Don’t be surprised, though, if Lehman is named to assist U.S. captain Davis Love III at Hazeltine.

Several Gophers men’s underclass hockey players could turn pro after the season.

The Gophers have three Hobey Baker candidates; Minnesota State Mankato has seven.

Ex-Gophers NCAA champion wrestler Brock Lesnar is doing national hamburger commercials for Hardee’s.

The betting line for victories — above or below — for the Twins this season is 71 1/2, according to Pregame.com. Last year, the Twins won 70 games.

Not a single player from Ohio State’s national football champions is expected to be chosen in the first round of this spring’s NFL draft.

The Gophers lost 31-24 to Ohio State in Minneapolis in 2014 while the Buckeyes defeated Oregon 42-20 in the NCAA title game. Minnesota plays at Ohio State on Nov. 7 next season.

Bethel University grad Jackson Smidt was a graduate assistant trainer for the Oregon football team.

Nearly 100 hopefuls, including former Hopkins and Northern Iowa wideout Terrell Sinkfield, who played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, showed up at Augsburg College the other day for a Saskatchewan Roughriders free-agent tryout camp.

OVERHEARD

Dave Brooks on Sunday’s 35-year anniversary of the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team his late brother Herb famously coached to the “Miracle On Ice” gold medal in Lake Placid in 1980: “That’s a miracle that it’s stayed in people’s minds for 35 years. Every time somebody I meet finds out that I’m Herbie’s brother, that’s all they want to talk about. It doesn’t stop.”

Follow Charley Walters at twitter.com/Charley_Walters. He can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com.