Jonas Brodin, known already as a poised, cerebral defenseman, is as quick and efficient off the ice as he is on it.

How quickly did Brodin's six-year, $25 million extension with the Wild materialize?

"We started talking two weeks ago probably. We talked before last night's game and then we talked again after the game. And then … I signed the paper," Brodin said.

OK. If all negotiations were that simple, eh?

Brodin said the extension made for a pretty fun ride home with his teammates after Saturday's 3-0 win over the Avs.

Get used to seeing the 21-year-old Swede. One of the NHL's most mobile blue liners is signed on through 2020-21.

"I'm really excited," Brodin said. "I really like the organization, my teammates, the whole staff. I believe we can win. I'm really happy right now. I'm really confident my game will continue to develop."

General Manager Chuck Fletcher said, "Clearly he's a very important player on our team right now and we figure his importance certainly isn't going to decrease over the years (laughing). If anything he's going to continue to evolve and get better. He's hopefully going to be one of our cornerstone players here for the next decade.

"To have him signed through 2021 is great. He's a real big part of our present and our future. It came together very quickly. I give Brodin's agent Peter Wallen and [assistant GM] Brent [Flahr] a lot of credit. They worked hard at it. Both sides agreed that this term would make sense for both the player and the team, and we were able to come to an agreement really quickly, which was nice."

As Fletcher has said for some time, he wants to get ahead of next year's restricted free agent crop. Excluding the minor-leaguers whose deals are up, the Wild's pending RFA's are Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Marco Scandella, Erik Haula and Christian Folin. He'll try to stagger all of their next contract terms so they don't all expire again at the same time.

Fletcher said he has reached out to most, specifically confirming Granlund and Coyle.

"The first thing you want to determine is what type of term they're looking for," Fletcher said. "Some guys prefer a shorter term and some players like the security, so if we can get an agreement on the right term for the player, everything else will usually follow suit. In the case of Brodin, the top young defensemen market is fairly well defined. Once we were able to agree on the term, it came together pretty quickly. Some markets aren't as clearly defined as that market.

"But Brodin's a little different in the sense that he has already emerged. I don't think there's any question as to the role he plays on our team. He just turned 21 and he's played very well to date, but we only expect that he'll continue to improve and become a much better player than he is today. In this case it came together quickly because there wasn't a lot of difference of opinion as to how he fits now and where we see him going.

"In some cases, like specifically Brodin, there was a desire to talk now and try to pursue something and in other cases people want to see how things play out in the early part of the year. We've got to respect that, but we wanted to get a sense where people are at and exchange ideas. I could see one or two of them even happening next summer. There's no urgency here. We want to make sure we get the right deal for the player and the team. I'm sure with that approach we'll be able to chip away and get a couple of the guys signed, but I don't expect we'll get everybody signed right away. That's just not realistic."

Asked if he felt that seeing Brodin sign may trigger Granlund and Coyle to want to be locked up sooner rather than later, Fletcher said, "Yeah, potentially. Every negotiation is a little different, but there's been communication with their camps. We'll see. I don't mind talking during the season as long as it doesn't become a distraction. We're open to finding solutions now. If we can't easily reach agreements at this point, it's not a big deal to wait until after the season either. They're all good, young players, but Brodin was a guy we're happy to commit to long-term. He's a huge part of our team now and I think we all agree he's only going to get better. Certain parts of his game will continue to evolve and mature. He just turned 21. That's the scary thing. You think about the role he has on our team and the things he has already accomplished, and he's just turned 21."

As I wrote in Monday's paper, we're only two games into the season, so this is a real small sample size. But my goodness, the Wild's top four defensemen of Ryan Suter, Brodin, Scandella and Jared Spurgeon have been just marvelous.

Fletcher concurred.

Suter is honestly ridiculous. I'm not sure all the things he does well can be seen on TV. You just have to watch him in person nightly. It's pretty special, and all things considered with what he has had to go through the past month with the loss of his dad and the fact he didn't skate the week before camp and only played two preseason games, it's pretty impressive how great he was in Games 1 and 2.

We'll let Fletcher pick up from here: "Spurgy's Spurgy. It's remarkable how consistent he is and Marco's just a horse. And Brodin's even quicker than last year, which is amazing. He's certainly stronger and more confident offensively. Those four guys have been great since Day One of camp, which is important because we have two rookies (Folin and Matt Dumba) there. The rookies have been fine, but if one or two of your top four aren't going, that's where you can get into trouble. So thankfully, our top 4's been not even just solid but very good."

That's it for me. In next Sunday's column, I'll write more about the strategies with the pending RFA's and how this stuff comes together.

On Monday, Rachel Blount is covering practice for me from a daily point of view so I can sit down with a player after practice for a piece that will likely appear this week or next Sunday.

Again, the Wild next plays in Anaheim on Friday. The team will practice Monday and Tuesday in St. Paul, then head to So. Cal after practice Tuesday for a little fun in the sun before hitting the ice again Thursday in Anaheim for practice.