Wild Execs Pay Visit To Gaborik
The Minnesota Wild look to lock up Marian Gaborik before he's eligible for free agency next summer.
Marian Gaborik is the last remaining original member of the Minnesota Wild organization. He will remain that way if team president and general manager Doug Risebrough, who has also been with the franchise since its inaugural season, gets his way.
Along with assistant general manager for hockey operations Tom Lynn, Risebrough paid a visit to Gaborik in his hometown of Trencin, Slovakia last week, according to The Canadian Press. With just one year remaining on his current contract, the Wild want to get started working toward an extension for their franchise winger and avoid having him pursue a spot in next summer’s free agent class.
The visit by Risebrough and Lynn began the process by educating Gaborik on the team’s “philosophy and plans, used statistics to sell the 26-year-old right wing on how he fits in Minnesota’s system, and took time to answer Gaborik’s questions about the team’s strategy and direction,” reports The Canadian Press.
Terms of a new contract were not discussed. Instead, Minnesota merely wanted to assure Gaborik that remaining with the Wild was a mutually beneficial decision for himself and the franchise on both a short-term and long-term basis. They also wanted to alleviate concerns on the part of Gaborik that his offensive skill would perhaps be stifled in Minnesota’s defense-first system and in the Western Conference, in general.
Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, believes this was a good first step for Minnesota in its attempts to lock up their franchise wing.
“I have a lot of respect for how they handled that,” Salcer said, according to The Canadian Press. “It was a smart move on their behalf.”
Salcer, however, would not make any guarantees on this trip’s effectiveness toward Risebrough’s ultimate goal.
“As far as the future, it would be all hypothetical for me to speculate on what may or may not happen,” Salcer said. “We’re not saying no, we’re not saying yes to anything other than living up to our obligation to play this season. Then we’ll see.”
A lot of credit needs to be offered to Risebrough and Lynn for the lengths they were willing to go just to appeal to Gaborik to remain in Minnesota. Without even discussing money and years involved in an extension, he and Lynn made an unnecessary, yet intelligently outgoing, attempt to convince Gaborik that spending several more years with the Wild is the best move for him and the organization.
Regardless of the discourse, though, I don’t know how truly effective this visit is going to be. At the end of the day, athletes listen to the terms of a contract much sooner than they listen to team goals and philosophies. And Gaborik is no stranger to chasing dollars.
After concluding his rookie contract, Gaborik didn’t hesitate to hold out from training camp and the first month of the 2003-04 season because he was seeking a new contract worth at least $6.5 million per season. This was a ridiculous number at the time considering he was already being offered the second richest deal in NHL history coming out of an entry level contract in the form of three years at $9.5 million. He ended up settling for a three-year deal at $9.4 million and didn’t produce up to expectations in just 65 games played that season, registering only 18 goals and 40 points.
Gaborik goes into next season in the final year of a three-year, $19 million that will pay him $7.5 million for the 2008-09 campaign. It’s believed the Wild are prepared to offer Gaborik a deal that would average $8.5 million a season. Such a salary would make Gaborik the fourth highest paid NHLer, behind only Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. But will it be enough for a player who could probably produce greater offers on the open market and perhaps move to a team with a more open system for offense?
As far as the latter is concerned, Gaborik is already an offensive machine. Despite being in the Jacques Lemaire coached defensive system, Gaborik has scored at least 30 goals in five of the previous six seasons and produced a career-high 42 scores last year. Lynn also noted that Gaborik ranks fourth in the NHL since the lockout in goals per game. He’s already doing a pretty good job scoring in Minnesota, even if it isn’t the most encouraging system for his offensive skills.
A move to a more open system could help him produce more goals. But so could remaining healthy. Gaborik has had his fair share of groin problems and is currently recovering from hip surgery. In his seven-season career, the 26-year old right wing has yet to play a full season’s worth of games (82).
Still, he proved he could score 30 goals in just 48 games (2006-07) and 38 goals in 65 games (2005-06). And in missing just five games last year, he set a career-high mark and put in 42 goals. So while a more offensive system couldn’t hurt in his efforts to solidify himself as a top-notch 50-plus goal scorer, staying healthy and not allowing personal issues (like contract holdouts) to prevent him from hitting the ice could help him achieve such a feat with Minnesota, as well.
I think Gaborik’s situation really revolves around the almighty dollar. If he can live with making $8.5 million per season, which I know is hard to feed one’s family on, then it’s possible Minnesota can continue it’s marriage with the face of the franchise for many more years to come. If Gaborik is intent on testing the market and receiving higher offers, it could spell the end of his tenure in Minnesota with the Wild.
Risebrough and Lynn have a month to get something worked out with Gaborik, since it’s difficult to negotiate during the season and teams would rather avoid disrupting the on-ice product with off-ice contract talks. If a deal isn’t reached, look for Gaborik to be the most highly publicized piece of trade bait in the NHL over the course of the season.
