The Minnesota Wild elected not to extend a qualifying offer to restricted free agent Guillaume Latendresse, and despite the Wild's attempts to sign the forward to an incentive-laden deal, he will hit the open market Sunday at noon, according to the Pioneer Press's Ben Goessling.
Goessling says Latendresse would like to play closer to his four-year-old son in Montreal.
The Wild will be disappointed to lose a goalscoring option, Goessling writes, but with Latendresse's concussion issues and history of showing up to camp out of shape, there was no reason to offer him more than last year's $2.5 million guaranteed deal.
After missing out on University of Wisconsin defenseman Justin Schultz, who agreed to a deal with the Edmonton Oilers Saturday night, Minnesota are expected to be big players in the Zach Parise sweepstakes and likely can offer the forward more money over more years than any other team, Goessling says.
That said, the Wild will have to compete with multiple suitors for the sniper's services.
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