Reunited, and it feels so good...

Just minutes before midnight last night, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and the Wild agreed to a 5 year, 20.4 million dollar deal, which also included a "promise" to not deal Bouchard within the first two years of the new contract. Bouchard left a ton of money on the table to stay here, because he enjoys Minnesota (the state and organization) and wants to stay here much like Nick Schultz did with his new contract (Six years, $21 million.)
I still don't understand what seemed (to me anyways) like hesitation to sign PMB to a long term deal, although he is still on the up as a player- maybe Minnesota is trying to steer the team into more of a "power team"; you could point to signings of Owen Nolan and Craig Weller as evidence- and the Brass didn't feel Bouchard would be apart of that, considering his size and playing style. Arguably he was their best trading chip; a young player (you could consider him a veteran since he's been in the league since 2002) who still hasn't hit his ceiling- he put up 20 goals a few years ago, and had 50 assists this last season, which tells you if he can put it all together (and stay consistent, one of the very few knocks on his game), you are talking about a guy who is easily capable of putting up 70-90 points a season, and that is very much in demand when the primary scoring (i.e. Marian Gaborik) is shutdown or contained. In the end, this is the right thing to do; you got to keep your core (Schultz, Burns, Koivu, Sheppard, and PMB) together and build around them.
Obviously the onus will be on Bouchard to expound on his production from last year, but maybe this new contract is the security blanket he needed to truly feel comfortable with his place in the organization. Now the next priority is Marian Gaborik- Mike Russo of the Strib mentioned that Assistant GM (and chief negotiator Tom Lynn indicated that they would make the initial extension offer to Gaborik as soon as the PMB situation was resolved, which means any time now that you should be hearing news about negotiations. I've heard the number of 8.5 Million being bandied about, over a large tenure (4-7 years.) They absolutely need this guy, who puts the puck in the net, butts in the seats (although there's enough Kool-Aid to go around), and the Wild in highlight packages. This is a time where the Brass has to keep this guy at any cost.
-Tom Lynn also contributed a blog to Wild.com concerning the myth of NHL Expansion and Talent Dilution. I tend to agree that the argument against expansion is myopic; talent is talent, and its coming from everywhere nowadays; Obviously the main factories of Canada, The U.S., Russia, Sweden, etc., but now you got guys like Lars Eller (St. Louis) from Denmark, Anze Kopitar (LA King) from Slovenia, Thomas Vanek (Buffalo) from Austria all going in the first round. Hell, Luca Sbisa (Philadelphia's 1st rounder this year) is Swiss; if anything, expansion provides more of a platform for talent to shine.
-Here is an article about Brandon Rogers, who was signed to a 3 year deal by the Wild this summer and spent last season with The Houston Aeros.
-Kare 11 interviewed some of the kids during Prospect Camp.