Wild snubbed by Alex Tanguay.

Even though Jacques Lemaire and Doug Risebrough are gone from the Minnesota Wild it would appear that Wild still can’t win the battles to get prized free agents. Alex Tanguay took an offer from Tampa Bay to play for the Lighting over the “State of Hockey.” I guess Tanguay would rather play in front of half full arena for a horrible team than play for a team that has sellouts and a fan base that is rabid about hockey. Good luck with that Alex.

The Wild waited patiently for free-agent winger Alex Tanguay to make a decision on his future, and it appears that decision has been made.

Canada's RDS reported Friday night that Tanguay has agreed to terms with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Sources said Friday morning that the Wild hadn't budged on a one-year, $2.5 million offer -- the max it could legitimately offer the playmaker and still be comfortably under the $56.8 million salary cap ceiling -- but the Wild continued to talk to both Tanguay and his agent. [Star Tribune]

How about this line of thinking? Sounds almost like his predecessor, see we tried but in the end we were unable to land any prized free agents. No disrespect to Chuck Fletcher but it tells me that Wild have run out of option and Wild fans are going to be stuck watching James Sheppard, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Benoit Pouliot for the most part three unimpressive first round draft choices. Of the three mentioned first round busts/duds, only one that has any worth is PMB and he is a perimeter player that is afraid to go to the dirty areas to score goals.

I mean seriously; if the Wild are to get Phil Kessel he is going to cost them at least 3.75 million to a top end price of 5 million dollars a couple of draft choices and or a top of the line player, this is true with the other teams. Personally, if I had been Fletcher maybe I might have been tempted to take the proposed trade and sent Brent Burns to the Senators for Dany Heatley.

If Tanguay declines the Wild's offer, the team isn't worried because there should be a number of top players on waivers or on the trading block in September.

Chicago, Vancouver, Detroit, Ottawa, Washington and Boston are over the cap. Montreal, Philadelphia, Edmonton and Carolina are within $1 million of the cap. When one considers San Jose is at $53.5 million for only 17 players, the Sharks are theoretically at or over the cap.

Teams can be 10 percent over the cap up until the last day of training camp.

The Wild has shown interest in San Jose's Jonathan Cheechoo, Chicago's Patrick Sharp and unsigned Boston forward Phil Kessel. [Star Tribune]