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Shane Hnidy has been so out of touch the past few days, he didn't even realize the Wild signed Martin Havlat on Wednesday.
In 2000, Havlat and Hnidy broke into the NHL with the Ottawa Senators. Nine years later, they will be teammates on the Wild. Hnidy, a gritty defenseman, signed a one-year, $750,000 contract Friday.
"I can't believe it," Hnidy said by satellite telephone from a fishing outing in northern Manitoba. "I had no idea. The fans in Minnesota will have so much fun watching Marty. He's one of the most dynamic players I've ever played with."
Hnidy -- a k a Sheriff Shane Hnidy -- will be joining his sixth team. He has scored 57 points and has amassed 565 penalty minutes in 477 games, spending the past two seasons with the Boston Bruins.
He's a hard-hitting, heart-and-soul, right-shot blue-liner who'll get into a handful of fights a year.
"Great guy, a funny guy," Havlat said.
"On the ice, he works extremely hard. He's very tough, too."
Hnidy, 33, lives in Clear Lake, Manitoba, an eight-hour drive from the Twin Cities. And since there are no Winnipeg Jets anymore, Hnidy said, "Minnesota was No. 1 on my wish list just for the simple fact everybody always wants to play at home. This is like as good as it gets for me. I know how fantastic the fans are there and how passionate.
"I think they'll respect the job I do. I want to be there for the guys and whatever's needed of me, I provide it night in and night out. I'm not going to be a fancy player by any means. I try to be a consistent, solid player every day."
Entering free agency, GM Chuck Fletcher wanted to add two gritty defensemen to complement Brent Burns, Kim Johnsson, Marek Zidlicky and Nick Schultz. He believes he has found them in Hnidy and Greg Zanon, who was signed Wednesday. The Wild also had tough 6-8 defenseman in John Scott.
"We like our mix now," Fletcher said. "We're a harder team to play against now on the back end."
Behind the benchCoach Todd Richards retained assistants Mike Ramsey and Matt Shaw and goalie coach Bob Mason from Jacques Lemaire's staff and added Dave Barr, 48, who spent last season as an assistant coach with Colorado Avalanche after coaching and managing the OHL Guelph Storm from 2004 to '08.
Barr, who scored 332 points and had 520 penalty minutes in 614 NHL games over 13 seasons with seven teams, played with Richards on the old IHL Orlando Solar Bears.
"He's a guy with a good track record," Richards said.
Shaw and Mason were expected to return. On keeping Ramsey, Lemaire's assistant for eight seasons, Richards said, "I talked to a lot of people, and to a man, everyone had great things to say about Mike Ramsey -- as a person No. 1 and as a coach second."
• Wild restricted free agents Josh Harding and Kyle Brodziak have until Sunday to choose to file for arbitration.
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