The Wild Times is moving!

The current set-up here is causing some difficulties for us, so the Wild Times is moving, just around the corner to MinnesotaWildTimes.Blogspot.com.

Over the next week updates will be posted at both sites, but after that the move will be complete. if you have any questions you can always e-mail us minnesotawildtimes [at] gmail [dot] com.

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-Minnesota Wild Times

The Wild announced last night that they are buying out the rest of Mark Parrish’s contract. With three years left on his five year contract the 31-year-old Minnesota native is now a free agent after quickly clearing waivers. Amid cap concerns with Wild management this moves clears up around $2.5 million for the current season, as the team will likely opt to pay the buy out over a series of six years (as is a standard option in NHL contract buyouts). A few teams have already expressed interest in Parrish via his agent, and will likely get him at a steal as the preseason is about to begin and he cleared waivers securing the need for a Wild buyout.

This move, though it makes sense with the salary concerns, paves the way for their negotiations with forward Marian Gaborik. They likely needed the room to offer Gabby a pay raise, or they may be toying with the idea of signing another C class forward to fill the hole Parrish will leave. Parrish was benched repeatedly last season and was certainly not at the top of his game. After only allowing two years of his contract to expire before deciding they no longer required his services the Wild will have room to fill, which may be taken up by a younger player from Development Camp, as there were many young players there who seem to have made a positive impression on GM Doug Riseborough.

It’s been a little while since a post went up. As often happens life gets in the way of writing. So I apologize for the lapse, I was taking a road journey across half of the country. But lots was happening with the Wild while I was absent, and The Wild Times will get you caught up if you haven’t been paying attention.

The Wild and Stephance Veilleux have reached a deal, Saturday night, to keep the winger in Minnesota. Beating out the Monday deadline for arbitration. He has been given a one year deal worth $737,000, a slight cut from the year before. After the 2008-09 season he will be an unrestricted free agent if not signed before the yearly July 1 deadline.

This leaves Pierre-Marc Bouchard as the only unrestricted free agent left on the team. His arbitration hearing is set for July 28th.

Despite being left to the dogs during waivers, Veilleux has been given an interesting opportunity this season. He scored a career high 11 goals last season, as has been an increasingly important presence on the team each year. If he can manage to have an even better year this year he could force the Wild into a slightly better deal, or maybe at least catch another teams attention next year when he is left to free agency.

Wild winger Stephane Veilleux was put on waivers yesterday, as the Wild chose not to claim him, taking the calculated risk that no one would make an offer to him. And no one did. Today he remains Wild property, which doesn’t seem to distress Veilleux too much. He has said that it doesn’t matter he’s glad to still be with the Wild (technically) and looks forward to negotiating. So, despite his efforts to meet the Wild half way by representing himself, the Wild are still playing tough. Assistant GM Tom Lynn has said that Veilleux’s initial demands were “unreasonable” and believes that not being picked up on waivers will lower the going price for Veilleux during arbitration. So, it seems that Veilleux, despite have a career high season last year, may be taking something of a pay cut for the coming season (and likely a one year deal where he is going to have to have an even better season than last year), but it appears as though Veilleux will be back in a Wild uniform for the coming season. That is, unless something unexpected happens, which is probably just as likely as striking an easy deal.

The Minnesota Wild have announced their 2008-09 schedule. It can be found here in a downloadable PDF format. A standard web layout version can be found at the official Wild website here. Get your tickets now, before they are all gone, and pick me up a few while you’re there.

In addition to the signing of former Montreal Canadian Corey Locke the Wild have secured four other players, they announced on Tuesday. RW Danny Irmen, C Bryan Lundbohm, D John Scott, & D Brandon Rogers have all officially been signed according to Wild GM Doug Riseborough.

Irmen, the 23-year-old forward, was a former Gopher and has been playing in the AHL for the past three years. Posting three decent seasons with the Aeros he is looking for a spot on the roster proper, he was a third round draft pick of the Wild’s in 2003.

Lundbohm played with Aeros from ‘05-’07, and played with a Danish team last season. At 30 it seems as though this may be his final shot at making the team. At 5′10″ the Minnesota native is not a huge forward, but word is he’s got a solid shot and a nice pair of wheels.

Scott, at 25, could be the reason the Wild felt no need to resign goons like Fedoruk and Simon for the upcoming season. in ‘07-’08 season he led the Houston Aeros with 184 PIM in 64 games, though his three goals does put Boogey’s big donut to shame. At 6′8″ 225 lbs. he’s easily one of the biggest guys in the NHL. A lack of hands and scoring ability has never been an exclusion to making the Wild though.

Rogers is the only one in the pack who is being signed to a multi-year deal. At 26 he had a career high 28 pts (4-24) last season with the Aeros. Though he doesn’t seem to be a big scorer, he seems to be more in line with a Veilleux style player, leading the Aeros with a +17 last season.

The Wild roster has got to about full now, all that is left to see, now that Development Camp is over, is who will be on the roster for the start of the season.

The Minnesota Wild announced yesterday, along with a slew of other players, they have officially signed forward Corey Locke, who was acquired through a deal with the Montreal Canadians on July 11. The terms of the contract have not yet been made public, nor have the terms of any of the other signings this week.

Wild winger Stephane Veilleux has been proactive in his attempts to stay in Minnesota. As a restricted free agent he had decided to fire his agent, Paul Corbeil (who takes 4% of his salary), and prepare to negotiate a contract himself. He has said he intends to stay in Minnesota, a team he is proud to play for, and thinks that he can negotiate a way to stay in Minnesota all by himself. (Star Tribune reported on this today)

The Wild have not been overly eager to keep many of their restricted and unrestricted agents around, it appears that Veilleux (who scored a career high 11 goals last season) will do whatever it takes to stay in town. Not a bad thing, a solid winger with a good +/-, who is a standard standby for the checking line.

So, nothing has really been going on in the world of the Wild since the end of development camp yesterday evening. Thus I am here to say, really? Jagr is going to Russia? Why? Was there no one in the NHL who was willing to offer him enough money? He is certainly in the twilight of his career, and his pay checks in Russia are going to be coming tax free, since he will be a big draw for their new league. But I still don’t understand how this happened, he had said he wanted to go back to Pittsburgh, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t make him some sort of offer, and he’s got a great shot at a cup playing for them. It just doesn’t make any sense to me, well, I guess it does, but it doesn’t all the same.