The Wild quelled a few rumours this morning, as they have signed their number one goalie,
Niklas Backstrom, to a 4-year contract extension, reportedly worth $24 million over the duration. For a number one goalie to be a $6 million cap hit, that is fairly reasonable, especially with some of the numbers Backstrom has been able to put up in his tenure with the Wild.
This season, Backstrom, a Draft pick of Larry's, has managed to win 28 games, 6 of them as shutouts and that totals 68 pool points this year. That's a fairly reasonable season, so far, but it isn't quite good enough to keep the Wild in the playoff race, as of right now. The Wild are only 2 points out of 8th place and a new contract could be the thing that solves a question or two in Backstrom's mind, in order to play a little bit better.
The $6 million cap hit does not do much harm to the Wild towards 2010, as they already have 16 players signed on for next season at a reasonable cap cost of $42.2 million (approx.). The team does have some interesting free agents, like
Marc-Andre Bergeron, Stephane Veilleux, Martin Skoula and
Marian Gaborik to contend with as UFAs, while
Josh Harding, Benoit Pouliot and
Dan Fritsche will all hit the RFA list. How would you fill in some of the gaps for next season, see below.
| Forwards | Defense | Goaltenders |
| Mikko Koivu | Marek Zidlicky | Niklas Backstrom |
| Antti Miettinen | Brent Burns |
|
| Pierre-Marc Bouchard | Kim Johnsson |
|
| Andrew Brunette | Nick Schultz |
|
| Owen Nolan | Craig Weller |
|
| Eric Belanger |
|
|
| James Sheppard |
|
|
| Cal Clutterbuck |
|
|
| Colton Gillies |
|
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| Derek Boogaard |
|
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