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.

Saturday, July 26th Gm Doug Riseborough announced that the Wild have settled on a deal with forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Bouchard was briefly on the trading block, and his future with the Wild was anything but certain. Now, it appears as though the Wild have every intention of keeping him in a Minnesota jersey as long as they can.

The deal is reportedly worth $20.4 million over five years (more than they were paying Rolston). Putting up 63 points last year, with a team record 50 assists, Bouchard has proven that he is an indispensable part of the offense. He even showed up to the playoffs last season (few members of the Wild did…), which likely cemented him as someone they were likely to resign.

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.