Havlat signs with Wild

Martin Havlat’s agent is reporting on Twitter that his client has signed a 6 year, $30 million contract with the Minnesota Wild.  Obviously, that results in a team cap hit of $5 million per season over the course of the contract.

Once again, I am rather blown away by the term here.  Six years for a fragile forward like Havlat seems like a lot.  But, as Chuck Fletcher probably knew going in, if you are going to make a play in free agency, then you have to be willing to go long-term. 

Here are Havlat’s games played stats from the past four NHL seasons since the lockout:  18, 56, 35, 81 (total 190).

So, the Wild has rid themselves of one injury-prone forward in Marian Gaborik, and has replaced that injury-prone player with Martin Havlat. 

Here are Gaborik’s games played stats from the past four NHL seasons since the lockout: 65, 48, 77, 17 (total 207).

For all that’s written about Gaborik, he’s been more durable than Havlat over the past four seasons and is arguably the most productive player in the NHL at even strength.  So overall, the Wild may have actually gotten a bit worse with today’s news (losing Gaborik and gaining Havlat), but at least they didn’t lose Gaborik and not replace him at all.