Minnesota Wild: Jordan Schroeder Inks a One Year Deal

The Minnesota Wild and Jordan Schroeder agreed yesterday to a one-year contract worth $650,000 avoiding a possible arbitration hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday. The deal shores up Schroeder to fill out the Wild’s depth, but will it be the last contract Schroeder signs?

Jordan Schroeder and the Minnesota Wild finally came to an agreement yesterday afternoon on a one-year contract to avoid an impending arbitration hearing scheduled for Tuesday of this week. Sportsnet is reporting that Schroeder’s deal will be a two-way deal that will pay Schroeder $650,000 at the NHL level and $275,000 while he’s in the AHL. That’s a modest pay raise from his last deal with the Wild, but more importantly pays Schroeder $150,000 more in the AHL and $50,000 more in the NHL.

All this coming after a hard week that saw Schroeder put on and clear waivers in a move that was seen as a leverage move by the Wild to make an arbitration hearing go their way. It seems that move worked as Schroeder must have seen the writing on the wall after he cleared waivers. By clearing waivers unclaimed the Wild would be able to show an arbitrator that his relative value in the league was not high and that a two-way deal for modest money would be more appropriate.

The rumor was that Schroeder wanted a one-way deal that would keep him paid at an NHL level no matter if he was with Minnesota or Iowa. Still in the end it seems that his play just did not warrant that one-way deal. The issue always seemed to be was that the Wild had to prove to Schroeder that he hadn’t earned the one-way contract.

Still this one-year contract will be his last with the Wild if he can’t increase his level of play. This is his year to finally show that he is the player the Canucks drafted 22nd overall in 2009. The glimmer of hope here is that he capitalizes on a solid year in Iowa, where he scored 34 points, and finally translate that success to the NHL.