Updated: Lottery went as expected; Wild will pick 12th in the first round come June.

ROSTER SITUATION

Under contract: G Niklas Backstrom, $6 million; D Kim Johnsson, $4.85 million ($5.3 million salary); RW Pierre-Marc Bouchard, $4.08 million ($4.25 million); D Brent Burns, $3.55 million ($3.4 million); D Nick Schultz, $3.5 million ($3.4 million); D Marek Zidlicky, $3.35 million ($3.5 million); C Mikko Koivu, $3.25 million ($3.3 million); RW Owen Nolan, $2.75 million; RW Antti Miettinen, $2.33 million ($2.5 million); LW Andrew Brunette, $2.33 million ($2.5 million); C Eric Belanger, $1.75 million; C James Sheppard, $1.4 million ($765,000); LW Colton Gillies, $1.0417 million ($875,000); LW Derek Boogaard, $875,000 ($1.025 million); RW Cal Clutterbuck, $725,800 ($623,000); RW Craig Weller, $600,000 ($625,000).

Total cap hit: $43,116,944 for 16 players, including $727,778 charged for bought-out Mark Parrish.
Total actual payroll: $43,490,778 for 16 players, including $927,778 owed to Parrish and excluding potential bonuses paid to Sheppard and Gillies.

* Salary Cap hit first number; in parentheses is actual salary.
** Salary cap will be announced in late June, but it was $56.7 million in 2008-09.

Restricted free agents (to retain rights, qualifying offer must be tendered by June 29): RW Dan Fritsche, $875,000; C Benoit Pouliot, $765,000; G Josh Harding, $725,000; C Peter Olvecky, $550,000.

*Salary-cap numbers for 2008-09 (Pouliot’s cap hit was $1.7 million).
**Other restricted free agents include minor-leaguers Danny Irmen and Clayton Stoner.

Unrestricted free agents (can become free July 1, may not return): RW Marian Gaborik, $6.33 million; D Martin Skoula, $1.8 million; D Marc-Andre Bergeron, $1.254 million; D Kurtis Foster, $1.025 million; LW Stephane Veilleux, $862,500; D John Scott, $522,000; C Krys Kolanos, $500,000.

*Salary-cap numbers for 2008-09.
**Other unrestricted free agents include minor-leaguers Nolan Schaefer, Tomas Mojzis and Bryan Lundbohm.

————————————————————————— 

Central Scouting put out its final rankings for the Draft today, and they can be seen here. Remember, that’s just the North American skater list. Follow links if you want to see goalie lists, and the European lists. Minnesota’s Jordan Schroeder is rated fifth among North American skaters. Edina’s Zach Budish is ranked 22nd, dropped from 16th at the midterm (because he missed the high school season after knee reconstruction).

According to sources, the Wild has placed center Peter Olvecky on waivers with the hope of getting him to Houston for the playoffs.

Later today, I will put a chart up here illustrating restricted free agents, unrestricted free agents and signed Wild players for next year, and a look at their cap hits.

Here’s a Best of Jacques Lemaire on YouTube. Funny stuff. My two favorites: The Dr. Samuelson line is great, and that came after an Opening Night win two seasons ago. The Corey Perry winner from this year is hysterical too.

Tonight (Tuesday) at 9 p.m. on the DIY Network, the episode of Project Xtreme will air that was filmed at Xcel Energy Center in November. It shows how the arena was transformed from a Coldplay concert into a Wild-Blue Jackets game. Host Matt Blashaw also went on the ice with defenseman Kurtis Foster, who was rehabbing from a broken leg.

Just watched it on DVD. It’s very well done. Interesting even for me, who lives at the arena part-time.

Also tonight, is the NHL Draft Lottery at 7 p.m. live on VERSUS. The Wild right now is picking 12th in June’s Entry Draft in Montreal. The Wild has a 1.1 percent chance of winning the lottery, and if that happened (which it won’t), the Wild would move up four slots.

The final “Russo Radio” show on KSTP will be tonight at 6 p.m. live from the Metrodome. Now I know the season’s over because I’m taking in my first Twins game after the show.

Also, I will be conducting the final online chat of the season Wednesday at noon on startribune.com. Let’s talk Wild offseason and playoffs.

If you remember, Foster’s first physical run-in was with Blashaw, and it was another step in his recovery. The story I wrote on it at the time is below:

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

November 17, 2008 Monday
Metro Edition

WILD;
Misstep adds confidence in recovery;
On the ice to help out for a TV show, Kurtis Foster stumbled and fell. That’s when the injured Wild defenseman realized he’s doing OK.

BYLINE: MICHAEL RUSSO, STAFF WRITER

SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 2C

LENGTH: 628 words
Wednesday will mark eight months since that devastating March night in San Jose, Calif., when Kurtis Foster slammed into the boards and broke his femur.

The Wild defenseman is still a long way from playing again, but every day provides further progress in his lengthy, grueling and often frustrating road back to the ice.

Take Saturday for instance.

Matt Blashaw, the host of Project Xtreme on the DIY Network, was in town to feature how an arena transforms from a hockey rink on Thursday to a Coldplay concert on Friday and back to a hockey rink on Saturday.

Foster went on the ice Saturday to show Blashaw a thing or two, and unknowingly took the next giant step in his recovery.

“I’m showing the guy how to hit and I bumped him pretty good, stumbled and actually fell,” Foster said, still looking a little spooked. “I landed right on my knee for the first time. It kind of hurt for a second and then … it went away.”

Foster, who took a while on the ice before he realized he was fine, smiled wide.

“It gave me the feeling like, `OK, it hurts and then it goes away. I’m not going to break it again,’ ” he said. “It was almost like another step in the comeback process where I felt, `All right, I can do this.’ When I do get back, there will be times I might feel it, but then it goes away.”

Blashaw was delighted to help. “If I helped him in his pursuit of getting back into the NHL and starting to play, I’m glad I could be a part of it,” Blashaw said.

Foster, who turns 27 next Monday, said every day is Groundhog Day, but it is that positive outlook that has gotten him this far. He was given further inspiration opening night when the Xcel Energy Center crowd gave him a spine-tingling ovation.

“I’ve had a lot of support through e-mails and Facebook and letters and people on the street,” Foster said. “But that cheer meant so much. It just motivates you when people care that much.”

Besides his taxing daily off-ice workouts, Foster skated five times last week for the first time at 30 to 40 minutes a shot. There are days that he is really sore, forcing him to skate lightly and only mess around with injured Marian Gaborik.

“I’d rather see Gaby on the ice with the guys, but at least there’s somebody out there with me that I can pass pucks with and feel like I’m with the guys again,” Foster said. “I’m probably skating at 60 percent. I can do every motion, I can do every turn. I’m just a little slow at everything. There’s just not the power when I want to push. But (Friday) was the best I felt skating laps.”

The biggest obstacle that Foster will have to tackle is getting over the fear of going into the corners or chasing down icings again. On Saturday, Foster had lunch with his sports psychologist, who was in town with the Portland Trail Blazers.

“Watching games, I still find myself wincing when guys are going back for pucks,” he said.

Foster hopes to return after New Year’s, and he raved about how positive and how much patience Wild GM Doug Risebrough, coach Jacques Lemaire and the rest of Lemaire’s staff have shown him.

Eventually, Foster will probably have to go to AHL Houston for a rehab stint. “I’d rather make mistakes there than make them here,” he said.

There is pressure on Foster to return, because he can become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The Wild re-signed him this year to give him motivation to rehab, but there’s no guarantee it’ll re-sign him again.

“In the back of my mind, I know it’s my unrestricted year,” Foster said. “Last year, things were starting to go so well, I was feeling confident that maybe I can sign here long-term and be here for a long time. Then this happened. So I want to get back and show everybody and this team that I can still play in this league.” .

Up next: 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pittsburgh

TV: VS. (830-AM)

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