UPDATED
Josh Harding wanted to stay, and now he is.
One day after telling the Star Tribune he was willing to stay with the Wild if he was able to agree to a multi-year deal, Harding has signed a three-year, $5.7 million contract to remain in Minnesota. That's a $1.9 million cap hit, takes Harding two years past the expiration of Niklas Backstrom's contract and affords more time for young goalies Matt Hackett, Darcy Kuemper and Johan Gustafsson to develop.
He will make $1.5 million next season and $2.1 million in each of the next two, sources say.
Harding was very excited and said July 1 was a risk with so few teams looking for a No. 1. Just look at Tomas Vokoun last year, who played hard ball with Colorado and wound up having to sign a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Washington.
"I didn't want to be in a different spot when all the chairs are gone and the music stops," Harding said.
And if that were the case, he said it made no sense for him to leave here to be a No. 2 elsewhere.
This also gives the Wild lots of eventual options. As I've written over and over again, there's only one cage. Eventually, whether it's soon or more likely after they develop some more, you can bet the Wild will use a goaltender or two as assets and try to parlay them into established players and/or high draft picks in trades.
