Minnesota Wild and Free Agency Day 1
Well, it’s almost the end of day one of the National Hockey League’s free agency period. For the Minnesota Wild, it appears to be an average day one. It’s not like 2006 where Wild general manager Doug Risebrough seemingly went crazy by picking up free agents Mark Parrish, Kim Johnsson, Niklas Backstron, Petteri Nummelin, and Branko Radivojevic. However, today wasn’t like those lean years either where Wild fans had to sit back and watch.
Today has been quiet, albeit, productive. The first big splash for the Wild was the reunion with Andrew Brunette. When Brunette was left unsigned by the Wild, he picked up and moved his family to Denver to play for division rival, the Colorado Avalanche. Brunette’s deal is worth $7 million dollars over the next three seasons.
Later in the day, the Wild also signed Craig Weller to a two-year deal worth $1.2 million. Many are speculating that the acquisition of Weller is to make up for the signings of Todd Fedoruk with Phoenix and Aaron Voros with the New York Rangers.
The kicker came with the signing of Brian Rolston with the New Jersey Devils. The Wild initially traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning for conditional picks. Rolston in turn told the Lightning, that he’d rather test the free agent market.
In minor league hockey news, the Wild re-signed goaltender Barry Brust to a two-day deal worth $1.1 million. Being that it is a two-way deal, could this be the indication that Minnesota could possibly be looking for a buyer for Niklas Backstrom?
Tomorrow’s write up will feature more in-depth analysis of today’s acquisitions and trades including what it all means for the Wild’s salary cap. Of course, when one starts digging deeper, you often end up with more questions than answers. And of course, the big question right now, is what’s going on with Pavol Demitra?
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2 Responses to “Minnesota Wild and Free Agency Day 1”
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I expect fire and brimstone to rain down from this blog if Smug Risebrough doesn’t sign a CENTER real real soon.
(p.s. sorry I missed that shout out there a while back, I was camping at the Big Lake near Onamia and fishing all over the place for the last couple of weeks. It’s been nice to unplug from the madness for a while!)
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Yay…Jon is checking in!!!!
Derek is up on the Ontario side of Rainy Lake this week with his family, so he is well aware of the idea of unplugging However, this year the resort they’re at has wireless internet, but since he’s on “vacation” he’s not writing this week. The fishing hasn’t been good this year, until today when they finally caught their limit in one day.
But yes, expect not just fire and brimstone, but a true hellfire. I already got that impression from Derek this afternoon. It looks like the “naysayers” will finally get to say “I told you so” albeit a few seasons late.
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