Pierre-Marc Bouchard and the Wild avoided a Monday arbitration hearing when Bouchard agreed to a five-year, $20.4 million contract minutes before midnight tonight.

Thank goodness my hangout of choice is right across the street from my home. Although, I think I did re-break my foot hobbling back to write a frantic story.

The $20.4 million is $600,000 smaller than Nick Schultz’s six-year package, which was the largest sum of money in one contract. Of course, next up is Marian Gaborik, and if the Wild can get him inked, that $21 million will be shattered.

Have a call into Bouchard, but it’s 1 a.m. in the East and haven’t gotten him yet. He’s probably celebrating, I mean, sleeping.

I’ve got to run, but the deal includes the at least two-year no-trade promise I reported in the previous post.

Good Saturday morning to you. I just got off the phone with Bouchard and GM Doug Risebrough and here’s some reaction.

Here’s an excited Bouchard on how it’s a good deal for both sides. Remember, he could have probably made more as an unrestricted free agent: “For sure, you see guys in free agency signing big deals, but lets say I sign for another year, you roll the dice again and you don’t know what’s going to happen (injuries, bad year). The deal I got from the Wild, maybe I leave some money on the table, but it’s to stay in a great organization, with good teammates, a great city. I mean, I love it in Minny and don’t want to leave.”

Risebrough on committing such a substantial, long-term deal: “It’s the right thing to do. As I’ve said many times, it’s always more difficult to start paying players in unrestricted free agency that you don’t know. I know a lot about Butch. He’s still very young. He’s still somewhat in a development mode. His best years are ahead of him, but it’s getting to the point where he has to make a significant impact and that should be over the term of this contract.”

Much more in Sunday’s paper.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Breaking news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.