Avoiding losing him back to the draft, the Minnesota Wild have signed 2010 sixth round pick Johan Gustafsson to an entry level contract. Wild.com reports the deal as being a three year contract. This, announced on Twitter, as I researched the actual time deadline for when he had to be signed by. Expect me to be researching Zach Parise early on July 1st.

For the Wild, this means they now have three very solid goalie prospects in the system with Matt Hackett, Darcy Kuemper and no Gustafsson. As you all should know, Gustafsson plays in Sweden, is putting up some good numbers, and helped lead the Swedes to a gold medal in the World Junior Championships.

From everything we have seen, Gustafsson will likely return to Sweden next season, though if the goaltending situation goes south for the Wild over the summer, you never know. If, by some stretch, he does end up in North America, it means Hackett is backing up Backstrom, and Gustafsson would be in Houston. But don't make any bets on that.

The main thing to take from this is that the Wild have the kid locked up, and the drama that would have reached a peak tomorrow is avoided completely.