Matt Dumba Clears Waivers, Assigned To AHL
Saturday: The team announced that Dumba has passed through waivers unclaimed. As expected, he has been assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It will be his first action at that level since the 2014-15 when he played in 20 games for Iowa.
Friday: The Penguins announced this morning that they will place defenseman Mathew Dumba on waivers today at 1:00 pm Central. He’s been placed on the non-roster list until his waiver period ends tomorrow. The move makes room for rearguard Brett Kulak to join the active roster after being acquired from the Oilers in today’s Tristan Jarry/Stuart Skinner goalie swap.
Dumba, 31, hadn’t been much of a factor to this point in the season. Acquired from the Stars over the summer in a salary dump, he’s been in the press box more than he’s been on the ice.
When dressed, he’s recorded a 1-2–3 scoring line and a -5 rating in 11 appearances. He’s averaging 14:56 of ice time per game, his lowest figure since averaging 12:27 in his first taste of NHL hockey as a 19-year-old with the Wild back in 2013-14. His poor two-way play is reflected in his 46.2 CF% and 47.9 FF% at 5-on-5, both the second-worst among qualified Penguins defenders, ahead only of Caleb Jones.
With Kulak in the mix, Jack St. Ivany returning to health, and Ryan Graves flourishing in a bottom-pairing role after starting the season on waivers, Dumba might have played his last game as a Penguin. At a $3.75MM cap hit, he won’t be claimed off waivers, even though he’s on an expiring deal.
If the righty is dead set on returning to the NHL this season, he could refuse to report to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, allowing the Penguins to terminate his contract. He’d be walking away from whatever he’s still owed of his $3.5MM salary but could catch on somewhere else for the back half of the season on a cheaper, prorated one-year deal. If he does clear waivers and opts to report to the minors, the Penguins will still be on the hook for a $2.6MM cap hit.
While Dumba may have been one of the more offensively dynamic defensemen in the league at his peak, those days are long in the rearview. Drafted No. 7 overall by Minnesota in 2012, he broke out for 50 points and 136 hits in the 2017-18 season, prompting the Wild to sign him to a five-year, $30MM deal the following summer. He racked up 12 goals and 22 points through the first 32 games of 2018-19 before sustaining a season-ending upper-body injury.
He hasn’t been the same player since. Dumba was still a minute-muncher for the rest of his tenure in Minnesota, averaging over 22 minutes per game between 2019-20 and 2022-23, but he never sniffed 30 points again – let alone 50. Still, he turned his reputation into a pair of relatively high-value, short-term free-agent deals. He first signed a one-year, $3.9MM pact with the Coyotes in 2023 and was flipped to the Lightning at the following year’s trade deadline.
Tampa didn’t show interest in retaining him, but he still landed a two-year, $7.5MM pact from the Stars. Dumba underwhelmed from the start, though, posting 10 points and a -5 rating in 63 games while averaging 15:18 of ice time per game. He was then a healthy scratch for Dallas’ entire playoff run. His cap hit quickly became untenable for the big-spending Stars, paying a 2028 second-round pick to unload the last year of his contract on the Penguins.
Wild Recall Hunter Haight
With Minnesota only carrying the minimum of 12 healthy forwards following last night’s trade with Vancouver, it was only a matter of time before the Wild brought up an extra for depth purposes. That move has now been made as the team announced that Hunter Haight has been recalled from AHL Iowa.
The 21-year-old is in the second season of his entry-level contract and made the team out of training camp, though he only got into a pair of games before being sent down to Iowa. Haight was held off the scoresheet in those outings while averaging 9:22 per game of ice time. He has been recalled three other times before now but those haven’t yielded another NHL appearance yet.
In between, Haight has been in and out of the lineup with Iowa and the going back and forth likely hasn’t helped his cause. After putting up 20 goals and 34 points in 67 games last season in his first professional campaign, Haight has been limited to five goals and one assist in 16 outings with them so far.
If Haight gets into a game on this promotion, he’ll be sporting a new number with his 43 from the start of the season now being earmarked for Quinn Hughes.
With this move, Minnesota’s roster now stands at the maximum of 23 healthy players.
Canucks Place Lukas Reichel On Waivers
As a result of yesterday’s blockbuster trade with the Wild, the Canucks had some roster juggling to do after bringing in three players and only sending one out with only one roster spot available. They dealt with one of the extra slots by putting Marco Rossi on their injured reserve. But one player had to come off the roster and it will be winger Lukas Reichel, who will be placed on waivers at 1 PM CT, reports Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic (Twitter link).
Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army relayed (Twitter link) earlier today that Reichel had been removed from Vancouver’s active roster. Players can be waived with non-roster status and that’s clearly the move that the Canucks have made to get back to compliance.
This was not the plan for Vancouver when they moved a 2027 fourth-round pick to Chicago to acquire him back in October. Reichel had gotten off to a good start with four points in five games before the swap but had fallen down the depth chart, resulting in the Blackhawks giving him a fresh start elsewhere.
Reichel played big minutes upon being acquired, even spending time at center with Vancouver’s injury issues at that position. But the production simply hasn’t materialized as he has just one assist in 14 games following the swap. Meanwhile, his role diminished to the point where he has only played once in the last ten games. Over his career, Reichel has 22 goals and 37 assists in 188 NHL appearances.
The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Chicago back in 2020, going 17th overall. He’s in the second and final season of a two-year, $2.4MM pact and will be owed a $1.3MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights to become an unrestricted free agent. Based on how things are going, it seems likely that he’s heading towards a non-tender.
That said, players with first-round pedigree often get multiple opportunities so it’s not impossible to think that a team might be interested in taking a flyer on Reichel by 1 PM CT on Sunday, hoping that a different fresh start could get him going offensively. If not and he goes through unclaimed, Vancouver will ultimately clear $1.15MM of his $1.2MM cap charge off the books by assigning him to AHL Abbotsford which would allow them to get out of using LTIR and allow them to start banking salary cap room again.
Senators Recall Olle Lycksell; Lars Eller To Miss An Extended Period
The injury woes continue for the Senators as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that center Lars Eller has been ruled out for the remainder of their road trip and that he’s expected to miss extended time. To add some extra forward depth to their roster ahead of today’s matinee against Minnesota, the team announced that they’ve recalled winger Olle Lycksell from AHL Belleville.
Lycksell has been up and down this season between Ottawa and Belleville, not getting a chance to play much at either level. The 26-year-old has played in six NHL contests, picking up one goal and nine shots on goal while averaging a little over 10 minutes per night. For his career, his production at the top level has been rather limited as he has two goals and ten helpers in 51 appearances; the others coming over parts of three seasons with Philadelphia.
Lycksell has been more productive with Belleville, however, tallying six points in nine games with them including four in his last four outings this month. It’s unlikely that he’ll have a chance to play the same role with the big club, however, as he’ll likely be on the fourth line if he gets a chance to get in the lineup.
As for Eller, the veteran is dealing with a lower-body injury. He has played in 28 games with the Sens this season, his first with them after coming over in unrestricted free agency on a one-year deal. The 36-year-old has two goals and four assists while also winning over 60% of his faceoffs, a career-best rate. Ottawa is second in the league in team faceoff percentage, so losing him will certainly be a damper in that category.
Devils Place Timo Meier On Non-Roster List, Recall Calen Addison
According to a team announcement, the New Jersey Devils have placed forward Timo Meier on the non-roster list for personal leave/family health matter. New Jersey has recalled defenseman Calen Addison from the AHL’s Utica Comets in a corresponding roster move.
Factoring in the Devils’ announcement from a few days ago, when Meier initially took a personal leave of absence, it appears that he’s dealing with a family health matter. Unlike other designations, such as injured reserve or long-term injured reserve, there’s not a fixed amount of time that Meier has to miss before being eligible to return. Since no specifics have been provided, it is unclear how much time will be missed.
Like PHR’s Ethan Hetu said at the time, “the hockey implications are secondary in this sort of situation, it is important for us here at PHR to at least take a moment to break down the on-ice ripple effect of Meier’s absence.”
For however long Meier is absent from the lineup, and with center Jack Hughes rehabbing a freak hand injury, New Jersey will be without two of their first-line forwards for the time being. Hughes remains the team leader in points-per-game while Meier sits third on the team in scoring with 23 points in 30 games, being the Devils’ leading goal-scorer.
Their first game without the pair didn’t go well, though not because of any lack of offense. New Jersey suffered a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning two nights ago, with Simon Nemec being one of three defensemen to earn a -2 rating.
He’s also the reason the Devils are replacing Meier with a defenseman on the active roster instead of a forward. According to James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now, Nemec injured himself a yesterday’s practice. There’s no timeline for his return aside from Nichols saying “he’s going to miss time.” It’s not expected to be a day-to-day injury.
Nemec, who’s off to a solid start this season, is leading the Devils in scoring among defensemen with seven goals and 18 points in 31 games. Now, without three of their top six scorers moving forward, New Jersey is likely to struggle to climb back into postseason positioning in the Eastern Conference. They’ve lost nine of their last 14 since Hughes exited the lineup.
If Addison plays, it’ll be his first NHL appearance since the 2023-24 campaign. The once 26-assist blue liner for the Minnesota Wild, Addison, is in his first year with the Devils organization, scoring two goals and nine points in 21 games for the AHL Comets.
Poll: Which Team Won The Quinn Hughes Trade?
Last night, the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks got together on the biggest trade of the season and of recent memory. Rivaled only by the three-way trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas to the Colorado Avalanche, the Canucks moved former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Quinn Hughes to the ‘State of Hockey’.
It’s easy to assess what the Wild gained in this trade. They’ve landed arguably one of the top three defensemen in the NHL, rivaled only by Avalanche Cale Makar and Blue Jacket Zach Werenski.
Outside of some mild injury concerns, Hughes has been dominant on a largely non-competitive team. Despite putting up some solid production through his first three seasons, he’s been dominant for the last five, scoring 50 goals and 335 points in 330 games while averaging 25:59 of ice time per night.
Unfortunately, and likely one of the motivating factors for moving on in Hughes’ eyes — the Canucks have only qualified for the playoffs twice throughout his career, with things again looking bleak this season. Although they aren’t considered in the same echelon as the Avalanche or Dallas Stars, potentially not even after this trade, the Wild have only missed the playoffs twice throughout Hughes’ career.
Still, as mentioned, Minnesota is lining up to play one of Colorado or Dallas in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs if they don’t fall to a wild-card spot, which may be more advantageous to them. Even though they’ve made the postseason more often than not over the last decade, the Wild haven’t reached the second round since the 2015 postseason. Time will tell if adding a player of Hughes’ caliber will be the answer to getting them over the hump.
For Vancouver, the Canucks effectively added four first-round picks for their franchise player. Marco Rossi, 24, is the oldest of the group, having been selected with the 9th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Liam Ohgren, 21, and Zeev Buium, 20, were drafted in the first round of the 2022 and 2024 NHL Drafts, respectively.
Rossi will immediately become the Canucks second-line center and will likely push Filip Chytil to a third-line role once he returns from injury. Over the last two years, Rossi has scored 28 goals and 73 points in 99 games while averaging a 47.1% success rate in the dot.
Still, Rossi isn’t far removed from a more-than-disappointing playoff performance last season. Scoring two goals and three points in six games, the Wild infamously demoted Rossi to the team’s fourth line as early as Game 2 in the team’s matchup last spring against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Meanwhile, Buium, the former National Champion with the University of Denver Pioneers, is enjoying a solid rookie campaign. Before the trade to Vancouver, Buium had scored three goals and 14 points in 31 games, averaging 18:28 of ice time per night. Despite starting 51.5% of his shifts in the offensive zone, he had averaged a 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength. He doesn’t project to have a similar offensive ceiling as Hughes, though he may end up being somewhat better defensively.
Lastly, Ohgren has yet to break out in any meaningful way with the Wild and may benefit from more ice time in Vancouver. Largely limited to a bottom-six role, the Swede has tallied two goals and five points in 42 games over the past two years, averaging 10:26 of ice time. However, if his AHL performance is any indication of things to come, the young center has tallied 22 goals and 42 points in his last 50 games with the struggling Iowa Wild.
Many of the grades of this trade will hinge on a few things. If Hughes signs a long-term extension with Minnesota this summer, or helps the team win its first Stanley Cup in franchise history, it will make the return haul a far easier pill to swallow. For Vancouver, if Hughes was unwilling to resign and doesn’t with Minnesota either, the trade will make a ton of sense in the long term, especially if each player reaches their respective ceiling.
Now it’s time for you to vote — who do you think came out on top?
Which Team Won The Quinn Hughes Trade?
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Minnesota Wild 52% (1,080)
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Vancouver Canucks 48% (987)
Total votes: 2,067
Mobile users click here to vote.
Lightning Notes: Finley, Vasilevskiy, McDonagh, James
The Lightning announced that they have assigned forward Jack Finley to AHL Syracuse on a conditioning stint. The stint can last for up to two weeks but he will remain on Tampa Bay’s active roster while on assignment.
The 23-year-old has played in 11 games for the Lightning this season but has only suited up twice over the past nine contests. He has a goal and an assist in those outings along with 18 hits but is only averaging 8:49 of playing time per game. Waiver-eligible for the first time this season, this assignment allows him to get a few games in with the Crunch where he can have a more prominent role in the lineup.
More from Tampa Bay:
- There could be some good news on the horizon on the injury front as Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times provided updates on several players. First, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy won’t return on Saturday but could be an option to start on Monday against Florida. He has missed a little more than a week with an undisclosed injury. The hope was that he wouldn’t be out for long but he ultimately landed on IR to allow for Brandon Halverson’s recall. Vasilevskiy has had a very strong start to the season with a 2.31 GAA and a .916 SV% in 19 starts so far.
- Meanwhile, defenseman Ryan McDonagh did some individual skating drills as he works his way back from a leg injury that has kept him out for more than a month. Following practice, head coach Jon Cooper upgraded him to day-to-day. The 36-year-old, who recently signed a three-year extension, has been his usual steady self when in the lineup, averaging over 20 minutes a night. With Victor Hedman out long-term again, McDonagh nearing a return will be crucial for a back end that has been beaten up this season.
- Lastly, rookie center Dominic James was a full participant in practice and could be an option to return on Saturday against the Islanders. If not, he should be back for Monday’s contest versus Florida. The 23-year-old signed with Tampa Bay this past offseason after declining to sign with Chicago, who drafted him back in 2022. After a good start in the minors, James was recalled less than two weeks into the season and has been up ever since. He has five points in 18 games so far and has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury.
Metropolitan Notes: Horvat, Wolves, Gritsyuk
It appears that the Islanders have avoided the worst-case scenario when it comes to injured center Bo Horvat. Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News reports that the initial indication is that the veteran will miss one to three weeks with a lower-body injury but that there was no structural damage. The injury occurred in the second period of Thursday’s game against Anaheim; he left the game and did not return. Horvat is in the middle of a strong showing this season, potting 19 goals and 12 assists through 32 games. Only three players have more goals than he does but that list will certainly be longer by the time he returns.
More from the Metropolitan:
- The Hurricanes announced that they have relieved AHL Chicago head coach Cam Abbott of his duties, replacing him on an interim basis with assistant coach Spiros Anastas. Abbott was in his second season running the Wolves; they finished fourth in the Central in 2024-25 and sit third in the standings this season with a record of 11-7-4. As for Anastas, he’s also in his second year with the club and will be running an AHL bench for the first time. He has also been behind the bench for Greece at the Latam Cup in each of the last three years.
- The Devils announced (Twitter link) that winger Arseny Gritsyuk will miss both games this weekend due to an upper-body injury. The rookie later clarified on Telegram that he hasn’t fully been examined yet which suggests that a longer absence could be on the table. Gritsyuk is in his first season in North America and has been a quality secondary scorer for New Jersey, posting seven goals and nine assists in 31 games, putting him in a tie for fifth in NHL rookie scoring.
Blues Assign Aleksanteri Kaskimaki To AHL
The Blues have opened up a roster spot heading into tonight’s game against Chicago. The team announced that they have assigned winger Aleksanteri Kaskimaki to AHL Springfield. Matt Luff took his place in the lineup.
The 21-year-old received his first recall of the season at the beginning of the month and played regularly after, getting into five games with St. Louis. However, while Kaskimaki played more than 15 minutes in his NHL debut against Boston but only surpassed the 11-minute mark once in his other four outings. Overall, he was held off the scoresheet in those appearances while recording six shots and a minus-six rating.
Kaskimaki was a third-round pick by the Blues back in 2022, going 73rd overall. He spent his full professional season with the Thunderbirds in 2024-25 where he had 11 goals and 23 assists in 63 games. So far this year, he’s scoring at a similar clip, notching four goals and three helpers in 16 appearances. He’ll have a chance to add to those numbers now that he’s back in the minors.
There was no corresponding recall so for now, St. Louis will go with one vacant spot on its roster. At this point, none of the four forwards that are currently on IR are close to a return so we’ll see if a recall comes in the coming days. From a salary cap perspective, they’re currently using LTIR even with Kaskimaki’s demotion so that won’t be a factor in whatever move comes next.
Wild Acquire Quinn Hughes
The Quinn Hughes trade rumor mill has come to an end. The Wild have acquired the blueliner from the Canucks in exchange for center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick. Both teams have announced the swap.
Dating back to the offseason, there had been speculation that a trade involving Hughes could happen at some point. The blueliner had talked about liking the idea of one day playing with his brothers, something Canucks president Jim Rutherford also referenced. To that end, the Devils were believed to have had discussions about the idea of making a move for him with those discussions resurfacing this week amid talks with several other suitors.
Minnesota was not among those known suitors but they have won the sweepstakes for Hughes, making a significant addition to their back end. The 26-year-old has been one of the top-scoring defensemen in the NHL in recent years and is only two seasons removed from winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top blueliner while finishing third in voting for the award last season.
This season, Hughes has played in 26 games with Vancouver, picking up two goals and 21 assists while logging a career-high 27:26 of ice time per night. For his career, he checks in at just below the point-per-game mark with 61 goals and 371 helpers in 459 regular season games. He has produced at a similar rate in the postseason, notching two goals and 24 assists in 30 playoff contests from the Canucks’ playoff appearances in 2020 and 2024.
It’s an understatement to say that adding Hughes will be a significant addition to Minnesota’s back end. The team has leaned heavily on Brock Faber in the early going this season with veterans Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon also logging over 20 minutes a night. That’s a solid foundation but a group that was lacking a legitimate number one defender. That’s now no longer the case with Hughes sliding in as that missing piece with Jacob Middleton (when healthy) also serving as a top-four-caliber piece.
Hughes has two seasons remaining on his contract with a team-friendly $7.85MM AAV. It’s plausible that he could double that when his contract expires and have a chance to be the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. Interestingly enough, he’s going to a team that employs the highest-paid player in NHL history as of next season in winger Kirill Kaprizov.
Clearly, GM Bill Guerin, who is also the GM for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, feels he will be able to make a strong pitch for Hughes to stick around for the long haul, even if it requires another record-setting contract to do so. Hughes will be eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1st although Minnesota has received no assurances that he’ll do so, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo (Twitter link). Notably, with new CBA restrictions on term and bonus structure kicking in next September, Minnesota will have about a 10-week window to try to lock Hughes up to an eight-year extension before the maximum length of a deal drops to seven seasons.
The Wild currently sit in third place in a hotly contested Central Division. They’re behind Colorado and Dallas, the top two teams in the NHL by a considerable margin while Winnipeg, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, is also in their division as well, though languishing as of late. With this move, an already difficult division gets a lot more difficult but the opportunity to add an elite defender to his group is an opportunity that Guerin clearly couldn’t pass up.
As for Vancouver, this is a situation they clearly didn’t want to be in on multiple fronts. For starters, the recent trade speculation was hardly ideal and it was recently acknowledged that it was a discussion point in the dressing room. Meanwhile, their preference certainly would have been to try to lock him up long-term but TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that they’ve known for a while that he wouldn’t do so. However, considering that the Canucks sit dead last in the NHL standings with just 25 points in 31 games and are coming off missing the playoffs last season, a retool of some sorts was going to be on the horizon. Taking a step back would have lowered the chances of Hughes re-signing while moving him allowed for the potential to kick-start that roster restructuring.
There’s a strong case to make that Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have accomplished that with this trade. For starters, they bring in a highly-touted young defender in Buium who they hope can be an impact piece right away, particularly on the offensive front.
The 20-year-old was the 12th overall pick by Minnesota not even a year and a half ago. He signed his entry-level contract at the end of his college season back in April and made his NHL debut in the playoffs, picking up an assist in four games. Buium has been a regular on the back end for the Wild this year, playing in 31 games where he has put up three goals and 11 assists in 18:28 of playing time per game. He should have a chance to play a little higher on the depth chart with the Canucks with a regular spot in the top four behind Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and Tyler Myers being a legitimate possibility. With a longer-term lens, he could be a potential long-term partner with fellow rookie Tom Willander.
Buium is signed on his entry-level contract through the 2026-27 campaign with a cap hit of $967K plus an additional $1MM in potential ‘A’ bonuses in each year. If he progresses as expected, his second contract could wind up eclipsing what Hughes is making now while giving them a foundational blueliner, albeit not a franchise one like Hughes is. Buium is under team control through the 2032-33 season.
As for Rossi, he helps fill a need that the Canucks have had for quite some time as a legitimate second-line center to play behind Elias Pettersson. J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat were on the roster is past years but both were ultimately moved out and with due respect to Filip Chytil who can be a quality player when healthy, Vancouver lost a lot of impact depth down the middle with those swaps. Rossi isn’t at the level of Miller or Horvat but he will be a substantial upgrade on their current depth options, a group headlined by recent UFA signing David Kampf.
The 24-year-old was the ninth pick back in the 2020 draft class. Rossi battled myocarditis not long after being selected which stalled his development although he bounced back without any long-term concerns. He had a solid showing in 2023-24 with 40 points in 82 games and then was considerably more productive last season, tallying 24 goals and 36 assists in 82 regular season games while playing over 18 minutes per night. However, his ice time dropped in the playoffs to just 11 minutes per game and he remained a subject of consistent trade speculation throughout the summer with the two sides well apart on contract talks for a considerable amount of time.
Eventually, the parties worked out a three-year, $15MM bridge deal in late August. He will remain under team control at its expiration for one more year but will be owed a $6MM qualifying offer with salary arbitration rights. Meanwhile, Rossi has produced at a similar level this season, picking up four goals and nine assists in 17 games. However, he has missed the last four weeks with a lower-body injury although he took part in Minnesota’s morning skate on Thursday which suggests he’s getting closer to returning. With Pettersson out of the lineup himself, it’s possible that Rossi could jump right into a top-line role depending on when he returns. He and Braeden Cootes – a 2025 first-round pick – now give Vancouver some much-needed longer-term stability behind Pettersson down the middle.
As for Ohgren, he’s an intriguing addition to this swap. The 21-year-old was a first-round pick by the Wild in 2022, going 19th overall. However, his development hasn’t gone quite as planned to this point.
Ohgren had his first full season in North America in 2024-25 and was quite productive with AHL Iowa, amassing 19 goals and 18 assists in 41 games, more than solid production for a rookie. But while that yielded some opportunities with Minnesota, he wasn’t able to produce very much, being limited to just two goals and three assists in 24 games. This season, he’s still looking for his first point after being held off the scoresheet in his first 18 outings while logging just 9:32 per night. Ohgren briefly saw some action with Iowa as well, notching two goals and three helpers in nine games.
That made Ohgren a legitimate change-of-scenery candidate. He should have an opportunity to play a little higher up the depth chart at some point with Vancouver and if he can turn into a productive secondary scorer, he’s someone who can be a useful piece for them for a while. In the second season of his entry-level deal, Ohgren has a cap hit of $887K along with $500K in ‘A’ bonuses per year. He’s under club control through the 2030-31 campaign.
Between these players and a first-round pick, Vancouver has added what they hope will be several core players to help them down the road. If all goes well, it will result in them taking a step back to take a couple of steps forward down the road.
From a salary cap perspective, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic mentions (Twitter link) that there is no salary cap retention on any players in the swap. PuckPedia notes that the Wild are adding a net cap charge of just under $997K over a full season. Using their numbers, that means that Minnesota is now projected to finish the year around $2.1MM below the cap ceiling, meaning that Guerin still has some financial flexibility to try to add to his roster later in the year. Meanwhile, Vancouver is still operating in LTIR although they should be able to dip below that threshold before too long, allowing them to bank some cap space to put toward some of the bonuses for their entry-level players.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Hughes was being traded to the Wild. Dreger was the first with the full trade return.
Photos courtesy of Sergei Belski and Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.