The Wild picked up one of the more interesting young players who hit waivers this season – defenseman Declan Chisholm. A Jets 2018 fifth-round pick who played just two games for Winnipeg in the first few months of the season, Chisholm immediately became an everyday player in Minnesota, posting three goals and eight points in 29 games while averaging 16:52 per game, 1:53 of which came on the power play.
He’s had a strong enough showing to earn him more runway in Minnesota as the club is expected to extend or issue a qualifying offer to the pending RFA, notes The Athletic’s Michael Russo. Chisholm was an RFA last summer, too. Without being eligible for arbitration and hoping for a one-way deal, he was one of the last remaining holdouts league-wide when he signed a one-year, two-way pact with Winnipeg in September. He’s arbitration-eligible this time around, though, putting a yet-to-be-disclosed firm end date on negotiations if he ends up in another lengthy dispute.
All indications point to Chisholm earning the first one-way contract of his career, and he should slot in as a cheap, puck-moving option near the bottom of the lineup for the cap-strapped Wild. Minnesota owes him a qualifying offer of $813,750, a cap hit he’s likely to eclipse when all is said and done.
Other updates out of the Central:
- Stars forwards Radek Faksa and Mason Marchment will be game-time decisions for the second contest in a row ahead of Game 4 against the Golden Knights tomorrow, head coach Peter DeBoer said (via the Dallas Morning News’ Lia Assimakopoulos). Neither played in last night’s 3-2 overtime win, paving the way for Ty Dellandrea and Craig Smith to make their series debuts. They practiced with the team today after sustaining undisclosed injuries late in Game 2’s loss.
- Predators defenseman Dante Fabbro will make his first appearance of the 2024 postseason when Nashville takes the ice for Game 4 against the Canucks in a few minutes, head coach Andrew Brunette said (via Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman). He comes in to replace Spencer Stastney, who left Game 3 with an upper-body injury after a controversial hit from Vancouver winger Dakota Joshua. Stastney has since been ruled out week-to-week and is doubtful to return in the series. It’ll be Fabbro’s sixth appearance since the March 8 trade deadline – he missed most of last month with an upper-body injury. The 25-year-old had 13 points and a +9 rating in 56 games this year and signed a one-year, $2.5MM extension on deadline day.