It sounds like another potential unrestricted free agent has been taken off the market, not to say he was ever on, but I thought he might have been. The Minnesota Wild have re-signed Marek Zidlicky, according to this Twitter post, for three years at $12 million. This deal will equate to $4 million per season, which I think could be a very good deal for the Wild, as they sew up one of their key components for future success.
Zidlicky is having a good season with the Wild, scoring 5 goals and adding 31 assists in 60 games for the team this year. His puck moving skills have definitely been good, moving him up the pool scoring ranks this season. Zidlicky sat in 135th spot amongst all players in the NHL going into the restart of the season, which is up from 196th, where he finished in 2009.Zidlicky also had a good Olympic tournament, picking up 5 assists for the Czech Republic.
The Wild are piecing together a pretty good mesh of players at a reasonable cost, as they now have 14 players signed on for the 2011 season at an approximate cap hit of $43.9 million. Having Zidlicky in the mix means that they have a quality number one defenseman in the fold to go with Mikko Koivu and Martin Havlat up front and Niklas Backstrom in goal, as a core group of players. With those four players already in the mix, the challenge will be to build around them and make a contender once again.
I like this deal for the Wild, as they have a top end defenseman in their ranks and most teams would have salivated at the chance to scoop him up, if he was actually made available at the deadline. But much like the Maple Leafs and their situation with Tomas Kaberle, these teams are in a rebuilding mode and already have a huge piece in place, which they would need down the line. This extension for Zidlicky is in the same vein and should be considered a good signing at a good price.
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