I have little doubt in a week or two that new Minnesota Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher could use a vacation. After a whirlwind negotiation towards the end of the 2008-09 season that brought him to the franchise as the team’s new GM, his former gig, as an assistant general manager with the Pittsburgh Penguins were on their way to win a Stanley Cup. This has meant Fletcher has found himself sort of torn between his former team and his current one, all the while trying to take the time to get used to his new surroundings and evaluating the organization’s strengths and weaknesses for himself. Complicating matters he had to try to find a coach for his new team and he did so in signing Crystal, Minnesota-native Todd Richards to be the Wild’s new bench boss. Pittsburgh wins the cup and Fletcher has little time to prepare himself for the frantic practice that is the NHL draft and now the other major stressful time of the opening of free agency. July 1st is the day that unrestricted free agency opens. For those players who have earned the right to become UFA’s for the first time its a chance at the big pay day they’ve been waiting for. For RFA’s who were not tendered qualifying they too get to join in the bonanza of unrestricted free agent status. Yesterday, the Minnesota Wild tendered qualifying offers to six of its restricted free agents. Here is that list. LW - Robbie EarlLW - Benoit PouliotRW - Danny IrmenC - Kyle BrodziakD - Clayton StonerG - Josh HardingIt should be noted that these are simply offers made; not contracts that have been signed. WCHA alums, Robbie Earl and Danny Irmen played well and showed tremendous effort throughout the season with the Houston Aeros and Clayton Stoner may finally get his shot to play in the NHL as an inexpensive 3rd pair defenseman. The Wild are sure to like his willingness to use his big 6′4″ frame as well as his mobility and makes a good first pass out of the zone. Tendering an offer is more or less an official declaration to hold onto he rights of these restricted free agents so those RFA’s they did not tender offers to are free to be unrestricted free agents where the Wild have no rights to anymore. Those RFA’s that were not tendered offers to were:LW - Riley EmmersonLW - Dan FritscheLW - Peter OlveckyRW - Roman VoloshenkoD - Paul AlbersIn this list there are some surprises, as the team has chosen to keep enigmatic prospect Benoit Pouliot over promising young players Dan Fritsche and Peter Olvecky. Fritsche, acquired via an astute mid-season trade with the New York Rangers for AHL journeyman defenseman Erik Reitz was the last trade that was made by then-GM Doug Risebrough. The speedy forward from Parma, Ohio seemed as though he would fit in very nicely in an up-tempo system but his asking price over over $800,000 / season may have made him too expensive to be a 4th line winger on a team hoping to save as much money as it can to lure a goal-scoring top 6 forward. Olvecky is a player who the Wild seemed very reluctant to let go; although there is a caveat to their decision not to tender him an offer. By giving Olvecky a qualifying offer the team would have to give the gritty Slovakian a one-way contract meaning they’d have to pay him the same salary in the American Hockey League as they would in the NHL making him potentially a very pricey minor league performer. By allowing Olvecky become an unrestricted free agent the Wild might try to sign him but get him to take a two-way deal where his minor league salary would be considerably less than his NHL one. Olvecky played very well along the boards and looked like a natural for a forechecking system. I hope they try to sign him back but I think that will be tough to get him to agree to a two-way deal as most players really feel they’ve made the NHL once a team feels confident enough to give them a one-way contract. A two-way deal would make Olvecky a prime candidate to be the team yo-yo as it would give him the tortuous duty of being flown back and forth from Houston in an effort to save some cap dollars. The reason the Wild are giving for not tendering Olvecky is they want to maintain “flexibility” and that’s an admirable goal but one that will very likely cost them Olvecky’s services as he’s been a player who has bided his time in the minors since the team drafted him 78th Overall in 2004. Benoit Pouliot is still the great enigma for the Minnesota Wild. The player selected just 3 spots after Sidney Crosby in the 2005 draft was given a roster spot last season, but after playing 37 games with varying amounts of ice time he would lose it due to inconsistent effort. Upon his arrival with the Houston Aeros the skilled winger from Alfred, Ontario appeared to turn over a new leaf and he played with more consistent effort and had an ‘ok’ season with the Wild’s AHL affiliate scoring 9 goals and 24 points in 30 games. In the post-season, Pouliot was strong on the penalty kill but struggled to get as involved offensively scoring just 1 goal and 7 assists in 20 playoff games. If you listen to the chatter around the Wild’s front office, it is clear they still have a lot of belief in Pouliot’s potential and are very eager to see what he could do in an up-tempo system. Yet his chances of making it are close to running out.Kyle Brodziak was just acquired in a draft day trade from the Edmonton Oilers and it is obvious he already has the confidence of new Head Coach Todd Richards as well as GM Chuck Fletcher. The tendering of an offer to Josh Harding was placed so that teams would be forced to give him an offer sheet to take him off the Wild’s hands. Minnesota would likely not match any offer given to him as another way the organization could save salary. The organization is not unhappy with Harding at all, but they realize he will be likely due for a significant raise considering his great goals against average and save percentage the last two seasons as Niklas Backstrom’s backup. In addition, Harding; like many goaltenders wants to be the #1 goaltender and with Backstrom now locked down to a 4-year, $24 million deal the starting spot is sealed up likely for the next four seasons and does he really wish to wait that long? So it is hardly a shocker the Wild have been shopping Harding as much as they can. There are some interested teams, including the St. Louis Blues according to Wild beat writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Michael Russo
