Wild sign Declan Chisholm with little cap space to spare.

The Minnesota Wild will be pressed up against the salary cap this season, although you can hardly blame Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin for that unfortunate reality.

Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo is now reporting that the Wild have come to terms on a new deal with restricted free agent defenseman Declan Chisholm, a one year deal that will carry an average annual value and salary cap hit of just $1 million for next season. That represents a slight raise for Chisholm who previously carried a cap hit of $775,000 on his most recent contract.

Chisholm was acquired mid-season by Guerin and the Wild when they claimed him off of waivers from the Winnipeg Jets. He would go on to appear in 29 games for the Wild during the regular season, scoring 3 goals and adding 5 assists for a total of 8 points over that stretch.

The signing of Chisholm will unfortunately leave the Wild and Guerin with very little cap flexibility heading into next season, with Russo projecting just $1.531 million in cap space for next season based on his projections for the Wild roster. While less than ideal, especially if the Wild were hoping to make any moves in season or ahead of the National Hockey League's trade deadline.

Of course Guerin is still being severely handicapped by the mistakes of his predecessor, Chuck Fletcher, most notably the buyouts of former Wild forward Zach Parise and former Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. Although the Wild will continue to suffer cap penalties for the buyouts of both those players' contracts through the 2028-29 season, this will be the final year of truly cap-crushing penalties for the Wild.

This season Guerin is once again forced to construct a roster with a massive cap penalty of $14.743 million as a result of the two buyouts, but thankfully that will fall to just $1.666 million for the 4 seasons that follow.