Guillaume Latendresse is moving on from the Minnesota Wild and will test his value as an unrestricted free agent when the market opens at noon ET on July 1.
Latendresse first told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune of his intentions Thursday morning and then announced the news on his official Twitter page later in the afternoon.
Latendresse, who played in only 27 games over the past two seasons due to knee injuries, told the Star-Tribune that he feels he needs to be closer to his 4-year-old son Hayden, who lives with his mother in Montreal. Latendresse is a Quebec native who played the first three-plus seasons of his career with the Canadiens before he was traded to Minnesota during the 2009-10 season.
The Star-Tribune reported that the Wild offered Latendresse a one-year contract with performance bonuses, but that on Wednesday he informed Wild GM Chuck Fletcher that he was turning it down.
"It's not that I didn't want to go back. It's not that the contract was not good. It's not that I didn't like the way the team was working or anything," Latendresse said. "It's really a personal matter more than anything. I would have loved to go back to Minnesota, but sometimes you have to make decisions for your family and for your future. And I think my son would be better if he could be closer to me."
Latendresse had 25 goals and 37 points in 55 games with the Wild in 2009-10 after getting traded from Montreal. However, he played in only 16 games in 2010-11 and just 11 this past season, totaling eight goals and seven assists.
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