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.