Trade Deadline Primer: Minnesota Wild

As we enter the middle of March, the trade deadline is inching closer. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make?  We continue our look around the league with the Minnesota Wild. 

In the past two seasons, the Minnesota Wild have emerged from the mold of mediocrity thanks to the long-awaited arrival of Kirill Kaprizov. The team’s sights are now set on making it out of the First Round for the first time since 2015 and to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2003, although a recent skid evidenced by their 4-5-1 record in their past ten games has set them back on that path, seemingly. Third-year general manager Bill Guerin has already made one interesting swap this month, dealing Nico Sturm to Colorado for former top-ten pick Tyson Jost. With that cap-clearing move, many thought Guerin may be up to something bigger. They now have just two days left to capitalize on that open space, though, as March 21st’s deadline looms large.

Record

35-20-4, 3rd in the Central

Deadline Status

Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$10.526MM today, $11.053MM in full-season space, 0/3 retention slots used, 44/50 contracts per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2022: MIN 1st, MIN 2nd, MIN 3rd, MIN 4th, MIN 5th, SJS 5th, MIN 6th
2023: MIN 1st, MIN 2nd, MIN 3rd, MIN 4th, MIN 5th, MIN 6th, MIN 7th

Trade Chips

Eyebrows across all of the hockey world raised last summer when Guerin bought out the remaining four years of Zach Parise’s and Ryan Suter’s matching gigantic contracts, resulting in what could be crippling salary cap penalties in the next few seasons before the cost of the buyouts goes down. The penalty of those deals is set to increase by ~$8MM this offseason, so this deadline is likely the most flexibility to move the Wild will have for the next four years.

One position Minnesota will likely deal from to make a trade is defense. Skilled drafting in the past few seasons by Guerin and co. has resulted in an incredibly deep all-around pool, but at this point, the defense (especially left defense) is becoming overcrowded with what look like surefire NHLers. Seemingly, the most likely of these names to be dealt is one of Ryan O’Rourke and Daemon Hunt. A second-round and third-round selection by the team in 2020, respectively, O’Rourke and Hunt have continued their torrid upward development since Draft Day, with O’Rourke playing for Canada at the abruptly-cancelled 2021 World Junior Championships. With 21-year-old Calen Addison in the mix, as well as 2021 selections Carson Lambos and Jack Peart, the Wild can deal from this position comfortably.

While the team won’t be dealing top prospects like Marco Rossi and Jesper Wallstedt, a name at forward they could look at moving is Marat Khusnutdinov. A great budding two-way center, Khusnutdinov had 12 points in 32 KHL games this season and has two more seasons remaining on his contract there. He’d be a bit of a project, but still is at least a B-grade prospect and carries significant weight in a trade.

Other Names To Watch For: F Victor Rask ($4MM, pending UFA), top picks in 2022 and 2023

Team Needs

1) Another Center — It’s entirely feasible that the Wild won’t go big-game hunting on the wings due to the emergence of Matt Boldy and the success of Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno on the team’s third/checking line. But they could look to add another player who can slot in at center in the middle-six. While he hasn’t played center in quite a long time, the Wild are reported to have some amount of interest in Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell, who could shuffle around forward positions as need dictates. They could also look to acquire another winger for the fourth line (a Cal Clutterbuck reunion?), giving competition to Brandon Duhaime, Nick Bjugstad, and Connor Dewar.

2) Depth Defenseman — Calen Addison hasn’t managed to carve out a regular NHL role just quite yet, and Jordie Benn just hasn’t cut it as an NHL defenseman for this team. While their bottom pairing of Jon Merrill and Dmitry Kulikov is fine at worst, injuries happen and having one of those two as your seventh defenseman is a good place to be in. A name like Brett Kulak or Justin Braun makes a lot of sense, especially to help shore up their penalty kill, which has been in free-fall mode recently.