Earlier this week, Wild GM Paul Fenton acknowledged that he’s probably done making moves this summer but it appears there’s at least one player he’d still likely to try to move. In a recent podcast with TalkNorth (audio link), Michael Russo of The Athletic noted that Minnesota has tried to move defenseman Greg Pateryn.
The 29-year-old played his first season with Minnesota in 2018-19 and took a bit of a step back from his performance with Dallas the year before. After looking like a potential fourth defender towards the end of his tenure with the Stars, Pateryn was a near-permanent fixture on the third pairing last season. His ice time dropped by 2:30 per night to an average of 17:07 per game though he was among the team leaders in hits and blocked shots.
Part of the idea of trying to move Pateryn likely stems from his contract which has two years remaining on it with a $2.25MM AAV. That’s a little on the expensive end for a third-pairing option. Nonetheless, with nearly 250 career NHL games under his belt between Montreal, Dallas, and Minnesota, he’s pretty much a known commodity at this point and as the UFA market for right-shot blueliners dries up, a team that doesn’t land one could certainly circle back to Fenton and the Wild down the road.