The Minnesota Wild have gotten out from under Victor Rask’s contract, at least partially. The team has traded Rask to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for future considerations while retaining 50 percent of his remaining deal. Rask carries a cap hit of $4MM in the last season of a six-year, $24MM deal signed in 2016. Rask will report to the Charlotte Checkers, a team he once played for during his time in the Carolina Hurricanes organization.
Rask, 29, was once a young, exciting forward for the Hurricanes, scoring 62 goals and 157 points over his first four seasons in the league. Since then, however, he’s fallen completely off the map, even clearing waivers twice this year. Now the Wild are simply giving him away while retaining a portion of his contract, in order to clear a bit of cap space and a contract slot for the stretch run.
Minnesota added a good chunk of salary today with Marc-Andre Fleury, but still had more than enough space to fit everything in. In fact, with Rask in the minor leagues he was already only costing them $2.875MM against the cap, not that much different than what they’ll now carry. The fact that the Kraken immediately announced that he would report to their AHL affiliate makes this even more confusing, as it appears as though Rask won’t get an NHL opportunity in Seattle either–at least not right away.
Set to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, it will be interesting to see if Rask even gets an NHL offer in the summer or returns to Sweden to continue his career overseas. At least the Checkers will be getting a nice boost–Rask has ten points in ten AHL games with the Iowa Wild this year.
Francis putting the band back together, lol!
Yes, indeed. He has been overly loyal to his former players and draftees, and that usually doesnt bode well…
Didn’t know he was still in North America. Thought he’d be KHL fodder by now
I doubt anyone not Russian or Belarussian wants to play in the khl right now, and even those players may not want to. Just with the value of the ruble alone, I assume that’s how they are paid.
I wonder if Datsyuk even at 40 or whatever would come back next year
I think they’re normally paid in USD, but I think those are hard to come by.
Rask and you shall receive.
Yes, indeed. He has been overly loyal to his former players and draftees, and that usually doesnt bode well…
Never thought he’d be in the league but brother Tuuka wouldn’t be. Considering how much better Tuuka is. Injuries suck almost more than Victor Rask does
They’re not related. Furthermore; Victor is Swedish, while Tuuka is from Finland. They’re not even from the same country.
Small 10 second google searches would do you wonders.