by By John Shipley jshipley@pioneerpress.com , St. Paul Pioneer Press

Hnidy and Greg Zanon, picked up Wednesday, give the Wild seven one-way players on defense. The others are Brent Burns, Kim Johnsson, Nick Schultz, Marek Zidlicky and John Scott.

"Those two complement the guys already here well," general manager Chuck Fletcher said. "I think we're a harder team to play against now on the back end, which is an element we wanted to add."

Hnidy, 33, signed a one-year, $750,000 deal, giving the Wild 20 players under contract for a combined $51.15 million, still enough under the $56.8 million salary cap to sign center Saku Koivu -- if they can get him.

"We're still in on a player here," Fletcher said, no doubt referring to Koivu, "and we'll see what transpires there and readjust accordingly."

In 10 seasons with five NHL teams, Hnidy is a plus-22 player with 565 penalty minutes. Last season with the Bruins he had three goals and 12 points and was a plus-6. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Hnidy's acquisition was announced as the team introduced new winger Martin Havlat, the star of Minnesota's free-agent class thus far, to local media. Havlat will be counted on to fill the scoring gap left when Marian Gaborik signed a five-year, $35.5 million deal with the New York Rangers.

Now the focus is on whether the Wild can upgrade their No. 2 center spot. Koivu, the longtime Canadiens captain and brother of the Wild's top center, Mikko Koivu, would accomplish that -- and they still have hope he'll accept the Wild's offer.

But if Koivu goes elsewhere, Fletcher will look for a trade, or inside the organization. One possibility is moving playmaker Pierre-Marc Bouchard from left wing to center.

"I feel Bouchard can be that guy, but it's going to be up to him to show us he can be that guy," coach Todd Richards said. "When you're playing center, there is a lot of responsibility. (But) in our system, we don't just require our centers to play down low (on defense); it's going to be a group of forwards.

"It may be the left winger who's playing down low in D-zone coverage. If that's the case, it should take a little bit of that responsibility away from him. He's a little bit smaller, and sometimes it's tough to contain guys down low. That should free him up a little bit."

Another possibility is Benoit Pouliot, a restricted free agent the Wild qualified this week. He played 37 games with the Wild last season, at forward and wing, but was sent back to Houston after his production came to a screeching halt.

"Are they the answer? Time will tell," Fletcher said. "We'll see in camp -- if we don't make an adjustment prior to that."

And there is room for an adjustment, though not much. The Wild are $5.7 million under the salary cap but want to build in some wiggle room in case of injuries or a chance to make an acquisition during the season.

Saku Koivu, 35, made $4.75 million in Montreal last season but because of his age is probably being offered less. On the other hand, he appears to be at the center of a bidding war, so perhaps his price is rising.

In any case, the Wild appear to have made their final offer and are just waiting for an answer, hoping the lure of playing with his brother might push Minnesota over the top. Don Baizley, Koivu's agent, declined to comment Friday.

"If we can add the right guy, we'll do it," Fletcher said. "(Center) is a hard commodity to find. We'll continue to look, and at some point we'll have to look at all our options. We've looked at the trade route, the free agent route.

"But we have to be prepared to look at internal options until a better opportunity presents itself -- if it even does. That's all we can do."

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