In Elliotte Friedman’s latest “30 Thoughts” column for Sportsnet, the venerable hockey insider reveals that teams have been calling on Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter. Friedman quotes Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher saying “We are actively listening… on everything.” 
After being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, Minnesota has an active summer ahead of them. Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund, Christian Folin and Erik Haula are all restricted free agents, and the team has somewhere between $11-15MM left to spend depending on where exactly the salary cap lands. That may not leave enough room to sign them all, meaning either they’ll have to move out some money somewhere else or bite the bullet and send one of their young forwards to another team.
Niederreiter could obviously bring in a huge return after his career year that saw him register 25 goals and 57 points. The former fifth-overall pick has turned into one of the more consistent goal scorers in the league, an looks poised to grow even further over the next few years. That doesn’t come without cost though, as he’s just two years away from unrestricted free agency and would command a huge salary should the Wild try to get him to sign long-term. His $2.67MM cap-hit this season was manageable, but he’s in line for a big raise next year.
Obviously it would be better to move out some of their older money, but that may not be realistic. Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville, Ryan Suter and Eric Staal are all 32 or older and earn close to $31MM combined. As the Wild start to turn more and more to their younger group those contracts have started to become painful cap-wise, and may force them to move out someone they’d rather not.