The Minnesota Wild answered one of their hardest offseason questions yesterday and announced that Thomas Vanek would be bought out of the final season of his contract. It clears up precious cap space for the Wild to make some big moves, but still it just feel bad to see Vanek’s time with the Wild end like this.
Well it happened today much to the delight of many in the Minnesota Wild community, and yet to the chagrin of others. The Wild decided to buyout Thomas Vanek from the last year of his contract. This move has been anticipated since at least January of this last season when Vanek’s numbers tanked just like the Wild did. The business decision was an easy choice and the team will be better off for this move, but for some reason it still just doesn’t feel quite comfortable.
The promise of Vanek returning to Minnesota to play hockey again was potentially one of the best in franchise history. Imagine a former Gopher standout putting up 40 + goals in a Wild sweater and leading the team deep into the playoffs and perhaps to a championship. We all saw that vision when he was signed. Sure there was the doubts after he moved out of Buffalo that the best years of his career were over, but most of us in the State of Hockey thought the energy of playing in Minnesota again would stoke the fire back up to where it was when he was one of the league’s best.
That didn’t happen though. As we know Vanek underachieved for his two years with the Wild and set a career low for goals this last season with 18. Lots of people would point to a lack of effort which was certainly true despite what Vanek would tell us. He would say it was injury that kept him down, and I’m sure that it did slightly but we all know these issues were their injury or no injury.
Did Vanek deserve another chance this season to show the Wild what he still has? Absolutely, based on who he is and where he’s been in the league and where he’s been in Minnesota hockey he did deserve another chance. Alas economics did not allow him that luxury and the Wild decided that they needed his salary to recapitalize the team. Michael Russo of the Star Tribune puts it best when he explains that “This was a business decision.” The $5 million in cap space savings according to Chuck Fletcher “was the easiest way for us to get the space we feel we need to move forward this summer.”
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Now the Wild have $14 million instead of $9 million to acquire players. That $14 million will allow them to go big game hunting in the market and improve the team. Still it comes at a price, and that price is that the Wild had to let down a member of the Minnesota hockey fraternity.
I really feel for Vanek because I think he wanted to do good things, he just forgot how to. If it was the money that gave him too much contentment or he suffered from not enough commitment something got in his way. After being informed he was bought out Vanek told Russo “overall in my two years, I’m grateful I got the chance to play for the Wild. It was a dream of mine. Before I was a free agent, I had a couple offers. But I wanted to come here and see if we can make it work. It just never panned out the way we both envisioned, and now here we are.”
“I’m grateful I got the chance to play for the Wild. It was a dream of mine.” -Thomas Vanek via The Star Tribune
Those are the words of a defeated man. If you have a heart you feel for Vanek and just wish him nothing but the best going forward. The need to win and win now worked against him. Had the Wild been more content with their station in the league, you might have seen Vanek finish his career in Minnesota. But it just wasn’t meant to be, because he was brought in to win and put the puck in the net not be another Minnesota hockey icon for nostalgia purposes. He had to know he needed to produce or he was out.
You could make the argument that the Wild are the ones who are to blame. Why couldn’t Mike Yeo reach him? There’s no doubt that Vanek had talent, so why couldn’t the Wild unlock it? Did they put him in the position to succeed? We’ll never really know for sure, but if Vanek would have played for Boudreau we could have answered the question a little more confidently. Who knows if the change of coach and system would have sparked him back to greatness?
So I’m going to spend the rest of the day trying get out of my mind the idea that Vanek’s legacy with the Wild ended like this. I’ll wake up tomorrow optimistic for the possibilities that the Wild have to acquire some great talent.
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Still I hope all of you out there remember to take no pleasure in this move because one of our fellow Minnesotans is being forced to move on. This quote by Vanek is all I want to leave you with “I wanted to play here. Even though I’m not from here, I call this place home. Minnesota’s close to my heart.”