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Free agents add spice to Minnesota’s possibilities this off-season

By Derek Felska | May 30th, 2007

It was almost a year ago now when the Wild fired the first salvo during the NHL Entry draft when it traded coveted prospect Patrick O’Sullivan and a first round pick to the Los Angeles Kings for Pavol Demitra. The Wild didn’t stop there and brought in Kim Johnsson, Mark Parrish, Branko Radivojevic and Petteri Nummelin to round out the upgrades to the roster. What moves could we see this season? With over $31 million already committed to the payroll and RFA’s like Mikko Koivu, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard needed to be re-signed it is very unlikely we’ll see as many splashes via free agency as we did last off-season. Yet, we will probably see a few as the Wild learned it needed more physicality and grit if it expects to go far in the post-season. The team is also still in search of a 1st line calibre centre to go along with Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra. The salary cap is rumored to be going up yet again, to around $47.5 million. That likely will give the Wild limited room to wheel and deal. With this in mind, we can take a look at the list of Unrestricted Free Agents for this offseason. I will list the player and their team from 2006-07.


Defenseman:

Roman Hamrlik - Calgary

Andrei Markov - Montreal

Brian Rafalski - New Jersey

Craig Rivet - San Jose

Mathieu Schneider - Detroit

Sheldon Souray - Montreal

Brad Stuart - Calgary

Kimmo Timonen - Nashville

Vitaly Vishnevski - Nashville

Forwards:

Jason Blake - NY Islanders

Peter Forsberg - Nashville

Scott Gomez - New Jersey

Bill Guerin - San Jose

Paul Kariya - Nashville

Vyatcheslav Kozlov - Atlanta

Robert Lang - Detroit

Gary Roberts - Pittsburgh

Teemu Selanne - Anaheim

Brendan Shanahan - NY Rangers

Ryan Smyth - NY Islanders

Keith Tkachuk - Atlanta

Goaltenders:

Jean-Sebastien Giguere - Anaheim

Niklas Backstrom - Minnesota

Curtis Joseph - Phoenix

Considering the Wild’s needs that I mentioned earlier there are some names that seem rather tempting. We will take a look at five of them and see what they could bring to the team, as well as the likely price the players will be asking for and whether that would fit into the teams’ price range.

D - Vitaly Vishnevski

Height: 6′2″ Weight: 203lbs Stats: 52GP 3G 9A = 12pts 31 PIM’s

Last season, some Wild fans even expressed their wish that the team bring in the hard hitting Russian defenseman. Vishnevski is stay-at-home style defenseman who loves to light people up, much to the chagrin of the opposition. He will never be a big producer offensively, but he is a decent skater with a good first pass out of the zone.

2006-2007 Salary and availability to Wild: ($1,550,000 / season) Vishnevski is the type of player the Wild are looking for. A mobile, yet hard hitting defenseman who will add some more edge to a fairly ’soft’ blueline. Vishnevski will be looking for a slight raise from his 2006-07 salary, so he would definately be in the team’s price range. With the Wild in doubt over what to do with Kurtis Foster and Petteri Nummelin, a punishing hitter like Vishnevski would be a good start to erase the ’soft’ tag of the team.

D - Craig Rivet

Height: 6′2″ Weight: 205lbs Stats: 54GP 6G 10A = 16pts 57 PIM’s

Rivet is a good skating, physical stay-at-home defenseman who is noted for his excellent work ethic. The North Bay, Ontario-native was a sought after player at the trade-deadline and he brought his energetic defense to an already loaded San Jose squad. He too is not a big producer offensively, but he does have a decent shot.

2006-07 Salary and availability to Wild: ($2,470,000 / season) Criag Rivet’s raise will likely put him near the limit (around $3 million per season) the Wild wish to spend on a free agent this season (with the exception of Niklas Backstrom). Rivet would fit in well, and provide more physicality to the blueline.

D - Brad Stuart

Height: 6′2″ Weight: 208lbs Stats: 75GP 7G 15A = 22pts 44 PIM’s

Brad Stuart is a solid two way defenseman with ok offensive skills. He is a physical player who at times plays a bit on the edge even though his penalty minutes do not necessarily reflect that. Stuart can play effective on the power play and has a fairly good shot, but is defensively responsible as well.

2006-07 Salary and availability to the Wild: ($2,400,000 / season) The likely increase on Stuart’s salary will put him on the edge of the Wild’s spending limit, but he’d be a great Top 4 defenseman for the Wild. He’s used to playing on the 1st or 2nd pair, and can provide some offense as well as playing a rugged physical game. He might not be as good of a hitter as Rivet, or Vishnevski but he does play with a no-nonsense attitude near the crease and is a great competitor.

C - Scott Gomez

Height: 5′11″ Weight: 195lbs Stats: 72GP 13G 47A = 60pts 42 PIM’s

Gomez is a creative 1st line centre with tremendous playmaking skills. He is a great skater with good speed and has demonstrated an ability to play big in clutch situations. He’s not overly physical, but he has demonstrated he can play well against physical teams.

2006-07 Salary and availability to the Wild: ($5,000,000 / season) Gomez’s salary makes it tough for many teams to be able to pay the skilled playmaking centre what he’s likely going to be asking for (around $6,000,000 per season) and the Wild would be hard pressed if they decided to take him. In fact, if the Wild decided to sign Gomez it would likely mean they did not sign either Mikko Koivu and/or Pierre-Marc Bouchard. As much as the Wild would like a player like Gomez, he’s most likely out of the Wild’s price range.

LW - Jason Blake

Height: 5′10″ Weight: 180lbs Stats: 82GP 40G 29A = 69pts 34 PIM’s

The former Moorhead Spud has really come into his own in the last 4 years; demonstrating tremendous hustle as well as knack for delivering offense in the clutch for the New York Islanders. Blake is small, but he’s all heart as he fearlessly flies around the ice using his great speed and quickness to work himself to the scoring areas. He may not be a big hitter, but his speed makes him a great forechecker and one that can take full advantage of the turnovers he creates. His 40-goal season shattered his previous career high of 28. Blake’s tireless work ethic also has him getting under the skin of his opponents and while he is not really a classic agitator per se; team’s hate playing against a guy with his sort of non-stop intensity. He was rather annoyed the Islanders didn’t make a serious move to sign him to a contract extension towards the end of the season and it is definately in doubt whether he’ll re-sign with them before the July 1st deadline.

2006-07 Salary and availability to the Wild: ($1,558,000 / season) Considering Blake had his first 40-goal season it is likely he’ll be looking for a significant raise with whoever he signs. His likely asking price will probably be somewhere between $3 million / $4 million. This might make it a bit steep for the Wild, but it is hard to simply bawk on the chance to bring in a player with such excellent energy and offensive touch. The team is a bit full on the wings, but Blake is the sort of player a team is willing to make space for.

So who knows what we’ll see this summer, but the fans can always hope the Wild make some more significant splashes via free agency while our prospects continue to improve and hopefully play more of a contributing role than they did last season. The playoffs gave the team a clear vision as to where their holes were, now it will be interesting to see what moves they make (or do not make) to address them.