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Wild place Cam Barker on waivers, is a buyout on the way?

Minnesota Wild v Boston Bruins

of the Minnesota Wild of the Boston Bruins on January 6, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Elsa

One of the amusing trends of this week revolves around former Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon’s old contracts being moved off Chicago’s books. That happened when the ‘Hawks moved Brian Campbell’s monstrous deal to Tallon’s Florida Panthers and it also occurred when Tallon acquired Tomas Kopecky’s negotiating rights from Chicago.

Even when Chicago and Florida aren’t directly involved, it still seems like there has been some fallout from Tallon’s decisions. The Minnesota Wild decided to put former Tallon signing Cam Barker on waivers today as part of process that some believe will end with a buyout.

Michael Russo explains that the Wild would be able to buyout Barker’s $3.25 million salary for 2011-12 for $1.08 million, which incur a $375K cap hit in 11-12 and about a $542K one in 12-13. Barker would need to clear waivers twice for Minnesota to complete the buyout.

How Barker, Minnesota got here in the first place

Tallon re-signed the likes of Barker and Kris Versteeg to somewhat bloated deals during the 2009 off-season after the Blackhawks dealt with the embarrassing fallout that came with failing to file qualifying orders properly. Chicago eventually handed Barker a three-year, $9.25 million deal that ended up being so unsavory that they traded him to Minnesota for Kim Johnsson’s expiring contract in the middle of the ensuing 09-10 season.

It ultimately proved to be a deft move by a Blackhawks front office that needed as much breathing room as possible going into the 2010 summer. They won the Stanley Cup without Barker and used that cap space to aid their efforts to keep some (but not all) of their pieces together.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, Barker struggled mightily with the Wild. After scoring a career-high 40 points with Chicago in 2008-09, Barker managed just 21 points with the Blackhawks and Wild in 09-10 and only five points in 52 games with Minnesota in 10-11. He’s known as a more effective scorer than defender relative to other blueliners, so seeing his scoring production dry up so starkly has been very unsettling.

If the Wild do indeed buy out Barker and make him an unrestricted free agent, there might be a moderate market for a still-young player who once scored 40 points and was the third overall pick of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. That being said, teams better beware of how much money they hand him after two lousy seasons. In other words, Barker’s agent might want to keep Mr. Tallon’s number around.