Have gotten a bunch of understandable emails from Wild worry warts regarding Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Marian Gaborik.

There’s not much to report, but I’ll throw this up on the blog.

According to Wild assistant GM Tom Lynn, he doesn’t plan to make an initial offer to Gaborik until there’s a resolution with Bouchard. His arbitration hearing is scheduled for Monday.

That doesn’t mean the team hasn’t focused on what it plans to offer Gaborik. It means the Wild’s decided to deal with Bouchard’s situation before it focuses on Gaborik. Lynn won’t comment, but you can bet it’ll be a long-term deal (four to seven years, I’m betting) in the $8.5 million neighborhood.

As for Bouchard, the two sides aren’t close on a long-term deal. While I still believe the two sides will work out a one-year deal prior to arbitration, this one definitely has the chance of actually getting to the arbitration hearing. 

Lynn flew to Toronto tonight to get situated, and right now, I’m getting the feeling there’s a large gap between what the Wild is seeking from the arbitrator and what Bouchard’s camp is seeking. Usually, both sides have a good idea what number an arbitrator will decide upon, so they can avoid arbitration and come to an agreement (like last year when the Wild and Bouchard agreed on a one-year, $2.6 million deal before arb or like last week when Stephane Veilleux and the Wild agreed to a one-year, $862,500 contract, including a 125K signing bonus).

In this case, the gap appears to be large enough that the Wild and Bouchard may not come to a compromise. So, there’s a shot it’ll get there.

But remember, in arbitration, the two sides can still come to an agreement right up to the time a decision is rendered by the arbitrator, which typically comes within 72 hours of the close of the hearing.

That’s it from Russo’s abode. Nighty night folks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.