Wild Smart to Play Waiting Game

News broke Saturday that the Tampa Bay Lightning had agreed to a deal with free-agent forward Alex Tanguay. This means the Minnesota Wild have to look elsewhere if they still hope to add a forward to bolster their top-six depth.

As Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune pointed out, Tanguay wasn't a great fit for the Wild. He's more of a disher than a scorer, and the Wild are in desperate need of people to put the puck in the net. With that in mind, who can the Wild target?

Russo speculates that the Wild could take a stab at former Penguin Petr Sykora. Still without a contract, Sykora is coming off a 25-goal season with the Penguins, has 300 career tallies, and is a two-time Stanley Cup winner.

It makes some sense, given that Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher knows Sykora very well from his time in Pittsburgh, where Fletcher served as an assistant general manager. Sykora also has more of a knack for scoring goals than Tanguay does, and he could be a nice fit for the Wild at forward.

However, Russo isn't done. On his blog, he notes something very interesting about the current state of financial affairs around the NHL.

As I wrote in today's paper, Chicago, Vancouver, Detroit, Ottawa, Washington and Boston are over the cap right now. Chicago can get down by sending one of their goalies to the minors and Brent Sopel as well. I don't know what Vancouver's doing. The Canucks are over the cap and have about 26 players. Boston's over and Phil Kessel isn't even signed.

Montreal, Philadelphia, Edmonton and Carolina are about $1 million from the cap. San Jose's at $53.5 after yesterday's trade, but with 17 players. So the only way it stays under is if it signs/keeps a bunch of 500K players.

Reality is that many teams will be looking to make salary dumps in the not-too-distant future. These salary dumps may not be much different than the trade the Sharks made with Vancouver Friday. That deal sent two experienced NHL defensemen to Vancouver for two prospects, one of whom is a former first-round pick (Patrick White) yet to prove himself in college hockey.

Fletcher is smart to hang out in the weeds for now. Not everyone in the NHL wants to go through what Calgary did last year, when the Flames didn't have the cap space to call up players from the AHL to replace guys who were unable to play due to injury.

Even teams like Montreal, Philadelphia, Edmonton, and Carolina, all of whom are under the cap, are likely to do something before the season starts. They simply can't afford to stand pat and risk not having the necessary room to add warm bodies to the roster.

Because the cap is expected to fall next year, teams are doubly careful about taking on new money, so the problem for those up against the cap becomes more difficult. Russo says he wouldn't be surprised if some serviceable players ended up on waivers. He has a good point.

The Wild need to be careful. If they think Sykora makes them better, he's worth a $2 million or so investment. If not, sit on that remaining cap space, and hope that someone on the current roster can get the job done until a team suffocating against the cap gets desperate to make a move.