Zherdev goes home

As soon as free agency started, it was clear what the Minnesota Wild were looking for. They needed to pick up some defensemen to help cover the holes left by free agency departures, and that was largely taken care of with the acquisitions of Greg Zanon and Shane Hnidy. They need another elite center, as was proven with their (ultimately fruitless) chase of Saku Koivu. They also need to add some more scoring on the wing, not only to replace Marian Gaborik's offensive upside, but to simply add goals to a team that struggled to put the puck in the net last year. Grabbing Martin Havlat helped take care of the first piece of the wing puzzle, but the second piece has been left unanswered.

Enter the New York Rangers and Nikolai Zherdev. The Rangers and Zherdev went to arbitration, and a value of $3.9M was set down. New York decided to walk away from the table, allowing Zherdev to become an unrestricted free agent. Rumors started swirling about where the talented young skater would end up, with some fans in Minnesota thinking that he might solve their offensive woes.

Today, the Wild faithful should be glad that GM Chuck Fletcher didn't take a chance on Zherdev. Fletcher had to have looked at the $3.9M dictated by the arbitration hearing, and wonder if the value for Zherdev was truly that high, especially with where Minnesota sits in regards to the salary cap. True, Zherdev can be an electrifying player, and can provide an offensive spark, but was he really worth almost $4M per season? The numbers from the second half of last season seem to point to a definitive "No". After a quick start, Zherdev flagged at the end, and didn't tally a single point in the playoffs. Not really a guaranteed offensive answer, especially with other prospects potentially being made available in a month or so. As for the other reason why Fletcher may have backed off? Zherdev was seen as a player with a risk to flee the NHL and play in the Russian hockey league, the KHL. According to reports, that's exactly what happened.

Ultimately, if the Wild had taken the risk on Zherdev, they might be left in the same boat they were at the beginning of the summer with Marian Gaborik. They would have the knowledge that they might have a game-breaking player on their roster, but they'd also know that they face a high likelihood of losing that player for absolutely nothing in return.