OK, now Day 3 is over; Salcer not “particularly optimistic” in Gaborik talks

Posted on September 22nd, 2008 – 6:20 PM
By Michael Russo

Updated at 7:30 with Salcer callback, and it doesn’t sound good (see below).

6:15 p.m., and I’m still here in the press box. The UND women just got off the ice from a long practice, and the lights have just been turned off in the press box. I think they want us out.

Think Doug Risebrough’s getting tired of offering daily Marian Gaborik updates to the scribes following the winger’s endless contract extension negotiations that continue to drag on?

The Wild general manager opened Monday’s interrogation by joking, “Well, [Gaborik’s] still in town.”

The Wild met this afternoon again with Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer. Things just broke up around 7ish.

Risebrough said before the latest meeting things are “crystallizing.”

He also said, “It’s time to make a decision,” but he still doesn’t know what the results will be.

Risebrough said it all will come down to guaranteed money, and once that is agreed upon, everything can work itself out. In other words, you can massage the cap hit to be anything. It’s now, how much does Gaborik get in real dollars annually and over the life of the contract?

Look at Vincent Lecavalier in Tampa Bay. His cap hit is $7.7 million, yet after next season, he’ll make $10 million in each of the next seven years. So the Wild and Gaborik are trying to come up with the guaranteed dough and set amount of years.

The Wild has offered him a variety of offers, ranging from seven years that would take him  to that magical age of 34 (before the 35-year-old rule), to eight, nine and even 10 years, I’ve been led to believe.

Gaborik, out with a strained quad, wouldn’t comment. I just talked to Salcer. The two sides may meet again tomorrow (Tuesday), although that’s not planned. He said discussions remain ongoing.

“I feel like we’ve made some small steps, but I can’t say there’s been anything that makes me feel particularly optimistic.”

In other news, the Wild was supposed to dramatically trim its roster tomorrow, but Director of Hockey Operations Chris Snow said the Wild has decided to keep a lot more players. The final number will be determined on tomorrow’s practice and scrimmage.

I did a really funny story on Stephane Veilleux for tomorrow. Veilleux took part in a blazin’ hot wings eating competition last night, and the results weren’t pretty. His lips were burned, his breath was bad and you can imagine the rest.

He’s also been getting razzed from his teammates about acting as his own agent this summer. He told his mates they should fire their agents and he’d represent them for half the commission, or 2 percent.

Although, he jokingly told Gaborik he’d charge him 1 percent. What’s 1 percent of $90 million? :)

That’s it for now. I’m tired and seeing two screens on my laptop at this point. FYI, I’m way behind on returning emails. I’ll try to do them on the plane back tomorrow.

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