Most of the Wild’s roster will be back next season. Only a select few players who ended the season with the team are free agents, and none of them were consistently in the lineup.
At least one of those expiring depth players won’t be back next season, though. That will be veteran depth defenseman Dakota Mermis, who will head elsewhere searching for a one-way contract, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports.
Set to hit unrestricted free agency for the third time next week, the 30-year-old Mermis played a career-high 47 games in 2023-24. It was his seventh season seeing NHL time, serving as a top-four minor-league option with depth recall potential for the Coyotes, Devils and Wild since making his debut in the 2017-18 season.
An undrafted free agent signing by Arizona in 2015, 64% of Mermis’ NHL experience came this season. He cleared waivers to begin the campaign and wasn’t on the opening night roster, beginning the season with AHL Iowa, but was recalled a week later with injuries affecting the Minnesota blue line and was shuffled between leagues over the next two months.
Mermis then remained in the NHL for the balance of the season after a recall on Dec. 14. He averaged 14:15 per game for the Wild, adding three goals and eight points with a -2 rating. He’s not the biggest frame in the world (6’0″, 195 lbs) but plays a physical game and has plenty of leadership experience in the AHL, where he’s served as a captain for two seasons and an alternate captain for four.
The Illinois native’s possession numbers were solid, controlling 49.5% of shot attempts and 47.9% of expected goals at even strength, per Hockey Reference. After logging minor-league time in eight of his nine professional seasons, he’ll look to land a full-time NHL look, likely as a team’s extra defender.
Elsewhere out of the State of Hockey:
- Forward Marcus Johansson could be a trade candidate this summer with the Wild looking to optimize their limited cap space, posits Harman Dayal of The Athletic. The 14-year veteran has one season left on his contract at an only mildly consequential $2MM cap hit, but he struggled last season with 11 goals, 30 points and a -15 rating in 78 games while again averaging over 15 minutes per game. However, he holds a full no-trade clause that significantly complicates any potential move. Entering the summer, the Wild do have $6.25MM in projected cap space with a nearly full roster size of 19, per CapFriendly.
- The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler and FloHockey’s Chris Peters spoke to The Athletic’s Joe Smith about options for the Wild with their no. 13 overall pick in this week’s draft. U.S. National Team Development Program goal-scoring record-breaker Cole Eiserman, who we mocked to Minnesota in our 2024 Mock Draft, was among the players discussed.