(updated on bottom with post-morning skate stuff) 

The Wild has signed Niklas Backstrom to a four-year deal worth $24 million. This makes Backstrom tied for the fourth-highest paid goalie in the NHL starting next year. According to a source, there’s a conditional no-trade clause that’s at least two years and continues as long there are certain statistics in terms of games and/or minutes prove he’s still the Wild’s No. 1 goalie.

The signing ends all speculation that Backstrom will be traded before Wednesday’s 2 p.m. CT trade deadline.

“The only thing I wanted to do was stay here,” Backstrom said. “It was a big deal for me to stay here. I’m really happy that it worked out. It’s almost like a second dream come true after my shot to play in the NHL.”

By the way, I asked him the most he ever made in the Finnish Elite League? 250K

However, this puts Josh Harding’s Wild career in a state of flux. Remember, soon after Manny Fernandez was inked to a three-year extension three years ago, Dwayne Roloson was dealt to Edmonton.

The Wild will almost certainly use Harding now as an asset. However, there’s no rush to trade him. The Wild could wait until the summer and create some type of frenzy, maybe at the Draft, but if the Wild does it by the trade deadline, out-of-playoff teams in need of goalies for the future include Toronto, Ottawa and Colorado.

Also, according to sources, the Wild has placed Peter Olvecky on waivers, and the Rangers have placed former Wild players Aaron Voros and Erik Reitz on waivers. Huge names on waivers today. Others include Brendan Morrison, Miroslav Satan, Craig Adams, Jon Sim, Eric Perrin, Gary Roberts and Martin Gerber.

Also, just talked to assistant GM Tom Lynn. Regarding Marian Gaborik and his comments yesterday, Lynn said:

“From our perspective, what Marian said is exactly what the team would expect, that he’s working hard to get back, that he’s been following the team closely, that he didn’t watch games. It’s difficult to watch games when you’re out. I even talked to Marian about that when we were out there. It’s tough to watch games when you’re out. But he did follow the team closely.

“So the perspective that somehow he was detached from the team or didn’t care shouldn’t be read into his comments. I was there. I haven’t seen a guy work harder to come back. I’m surprised he was ahead of where he was supposed to be. And we’re very pleased where he is. Me spending the two days there with him, I was very proud of how hard he’s working to come back.

“The team believes in him. As far as the potential discrepancy in time, I simply related what the doctor told me and Marian, which was March 10-20. He wouldn’t be held to it, but there was this window of expectation. Marian said to me he hopes to be back by the end of the month, and he actually said, ‘Tom, if it’s March 15 or 20, I thought that was the same as by the end of the month. I don’t disagree with what my doctor said.’

“So we were both relating what his doctor was saying in different ways. It’s not like the team is saying it’s this and Marian’s saying it’s that. The doctor’s the one that governs because we’re not going to want him to come back early and potentially reinjure himself. I know it’s a sticky situation, but I feel bad for Marian.”

OK, I’m back to the hotel.

First, Andrew Brunette is definitely in. I am not sure of the forward who will be yanked for Owen Nolan, but it’ll be Peter Olvecky, Craig Weller or Colton Gillies, I’d assume.

Same defensemen as last game, meaning Kurtis Foster won’t play unless Doug Risebrough calls Jacques Lemaire from Minnesota and says, “Sit Player X because I’m about to trade him.”

The Wild will wait to name a captain until before warmups, so we’ll know him when we know him.

I talked with Risebrough this morning. We talked a lot about Backstrom and Harding, which you’ll read in tomorrow’s newspaper. Risebrough said the Backstrom deal doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll trade Harding. But eventually, you’ve got to think he will. After all, Harding wants to be a No. 1.

I’d wait till the summer. This is an awful free-agent goalie class. So many teams need goalies that I think Harding’s value will be high this summer. But make no mistake, he’s no longer the Wild’s “goalie of the future.”

At $6 million per, Backstrom is the Wild’s No. 1 — plain and simple. Wild was under immense pressure and basically Backstrom got to name his price. The second that trade deadline passed, Backstrom’s agent, Don Baizley, had all the leverage because Backstrom was going to be able to name his team as the most coveted free agent available.

But Risebrough and myself also talked a lot about the trade deadline from a league perspective. He still says things are very quiet on his end and if the Wild does anything, it’ll be “minor.”

But I think it’s going to be a lot quieter than we’ve seen in a long time because of how tight teams are against the salary cap and become of the uncertain economic future. It is almost impossible to trade any player with more than one year term left on his deal. It is impossible to trade a bad contract — see Miroslav Satan.

It’ll be a very conservative day, I’m guessing. Deals will still get done, but as is often the case, the deals that do get done will be a far cry from the hype and ridiculous rumors running rampant around cyberspace.

By the way, great line from Craig Weller this morning. I went over to talk to Peter Olvecky, who’s on waivers, and Weller, who just cleared waivers, said to me, “Careful Russo, you might catch something.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 am 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.