Wild Add Two Players

The Minnesota Wild have also been busy on the first day of free agency, trying to keep up with their Northwest Division rivals. The Wild made a couple of signings for their forward ranks, including centre Matt Cullen and winger Eric Nystrom.  Cullen, fresh off being a rental player in Ottawa, signed a 3-year deal worth $10.5 million, a $3.5 million cap hit, while Nystrom finished his tenure with the Flames to sign a 3-year deal worth $4.2 million, a $1.4 million cap hit.

With Cullen, the Wild will get a good centre that should be able to play between the 2nd and 3rd lines, give those lines some responsible play, somewhat in the defensive mode that the Minnesota Wild are known for.  In 2010, he put together 16 goals and 32 assists in 81 games between the Hurricanes and Senators, but now he is in for a different challenge in the Western Conference.

Nystrom is no stranger to the Northwest Division, after being a key checking forward for the Flames over the past three seasons, putting up some mediocre numbers as a forward, but brings good energy and forechecking to the 3rd or 4th line.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Mikko Koivu	Marek Zidlicky	Niklas Backstrom
Andrew Brunette	Cam Barker
Martin Havlat	Brent Burns
Matt Cullen	Nick Schultz
Antti Miettinen	Greg Zanon
Guillaume Latendresse
Kyle Brodziak
Cal Clutterbuck
Eric Nystrom
Chuck Kobasew
Brad Staubitz
James Sheppard
Pierre-Marc Bouchard

The Wild could very well have most of their work done for the Summer already, having 19 players signed on to their table above for the approximate annual cap hit of $52.7 million. The Wild could use a back-up goalie and a couple of defensemen and that would just about do it for their possible roster.  I would imagine they will take a long look at a few prospects this Summer before moving any more money out of the organization, but so far it looks pretty good.