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Brandon Duhaime

Capitals Sign Brandon Duhaime

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Washington Capitals have signed forward Brandon Duhaime to a two-year, $3.7MM contract.

Duhaime, 27, joins his third team in the past few months. The fourth-line energy winger first broke into the league with the Wild in 2021-22, unexpectedly playing in 80 of 82 games while providing solid value with 17 points, 122 PIMs and 201 hits while averaging 10:13 per game.

He hasn’t quite rediscovered that level of play, though, and injuries hampered his effectiveness over the next few seasons in Minnesota. The Wild dealt him to the Avalanche at the trade deadline, where he finished the season with five points and 53 hits in 18 games. In playoff action with Colorado, he mustered a goal and a -2 rating in 11 games but averaged fewer than eight minutes a night.

He’ll look to reprise a fourth-line role in Washington as he helps ease the loss of Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, key parts of their bottom six last year that both found their way to the Sabres via trade and free agency.

Avalanche Acquire Brandon Duhaime From Wild

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The Avalanche have acquired forward Brandon Duhaime from the Wild in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick, per a team announcement.

Duhaime, 26, had been drawing interest from other teams, including the Canucks, for the past few weeks. He’ll stay in the division, making him the third trade pickup for Colorado in the past two days.

In Colorado, Duhaime will fill the same role he has in Minnesota for the past three years – adding muscle to the fourth line. He has limited offensive upside, evidenced by his eight points in 62 games this season, but he’s an effective enough forechecker to shoulder slightly more ice time than the typical enforcer. He’s logged between 10 and 11 minutes per game in each of his three NHL seasons.

Duhaime is one of the more frequent hitters in the NHL – he’s one of 32 NHLers with more than 500 hits since 2021. He’s normally able to bolster his grit with solid two-way numbers, but that hasn’t been the case this season. His 44.1 CF% at even strength, as well as his 41.6 xGF%, are both career lows.

A pending UFA with a $1.1MM cap hit, there was little reason for the Wild to hang onto Duhaime as they’ve again slipped to a sub-20% chance of making the playoffs, per MoneyPuck. Even if they were still solidly in the postseason race, there was enough demand for Duhaime on the market to make it wise to trade him and create roster space for youngsters such as Adam Beckman or Marat Khusnutdinov to make their season debuts.

Duhaime, along with the Avs’ other forward pickups this week, likely forces depth players like Joel Kiviranta and Chris Wagner to a press-box role come playoff time. Duhaime was one of five Wild skaters to appear in all of their 62 games to date.

The third-round pick is the first that Colorado has dealt from their 2026 arsenal. They added a second fifth-round pick in 2026 in yesterday’s Sean Walker trade.

Michael Russo of The Athletic was first to report that Duhaime was being traded. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that the Avalanche were acquiring Duhaime.

Canucks Have Shown Interest In Brandon Duhaime

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The Canucks are showing interest in Wild bottom-six grinder Brandon Duhaime, reports Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. As Seravalli notes, there’s no guarantee the Wild will shop any of their players with the postseason still a possibility. Still, he would add an element of experience and physicality to the Canucks that contenders often like to stock up on at deadline time.

The Wild are back above .500 and sit with a 28-24-6 record, good enough for 62 points. That places them four points behind the Predators for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with one game in hand. After a 7-2-1 run in their last 10, MoneyPuck pegs them with a 24.6% chance of leapfrogging both the Blues, who are tied with Minnesota but have played one fewer game, and Nashville, to squeak into the playoffs. Those odds are actually significantly higher than St. Louis, who now sits at 9.6% with a tougher schedule down the stretch and a .500 pace in their last 10 games.

It’s also extremely unlikely they opt to sell. GM Bill Guerin has expressed confidence in his squad as a playoff team throughout their tumultuous campaign, and their most prominent trade chip, goaltender Marc-André Fleury, carries a no-movement clause and recently indicated he’d like to stay in Minnesota as they push for the playoffs down the stretch. Duhaime, Jake Lucchini and Pat Maroon are the only three pending UFA forwards on the NHL roster, while declining veteran defenders Zach Bogosian and Alex Goligoski, as well as AHL mainstay Dakota Mermis, are pending UFAs on the blue line.

Duhaime, 26, has 189 games of NHL experience since making his debut with the Wild in 2021, scoring 19 goals and 33 points in that time. He notched a career-high 17 points and 122 PIMs in 80 games during his first season, but he’s not on pace to eclipse either mark in 2023-24. He’s averaged between 10 and 11 minutes per game in each of his three seasons, entrenching himself firmly in a fourth-line role in Minnesota.

His usually below-average possession numbers have been significantly worse this season, posting a Corsi share of 44% at even strength and an expected -6.6 rating, the latter of which is the worst on the team. As such, his most common linemates, Connor Dewar and Vinni Lettieri, have struggled to limit scoring chances against when on the ice together, controlling 42% of expected goals through 99 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.

Playing in all 58 Minnesota games this season, selling Duhaime while there’s interest may behoove the Wild regardless of their playoff aspirations. It may even benefit them – his possession impacts have been poor enough this season that a Duhaime deal could be a case of addition by subtraction. They’d also free up his $1.1MM cap hit (or part of it, if they choose to retain money) for the remainder of the year to use elsewhere.

Acquiring Duhaime, as well as the eventual return of the injured Dakota Joshua, would push recent call-up Arshdeep Bains and fringe winger Phillip Di Giuseppe out of a job in Vancouver’s bottom six. Bains, while he’s brought an energy element that head coach Rick Tocchet has praised over this three-game NHL stint, has no points and a -3 rating. Di Giuseppe has three goals and eight points through 40 games this year, averaging 12:15 per game.

Minnesota Wild Avoid Arbitration With Brandon Duhaime

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It appears the Minnesota Wild and winger Brandon Duhaime have worked out a deal before their arbitration hearing, which was set for Thursday. The two sides have agreed to terms on a one-year deal worth $1.1MM, the team announced Sunday.

The one-year deal will walk Duhaime to unrestricted free agency next summer. A 2016 fourth-round pick of the Wild, Duhaime made his NHL debut early in 2021-22 and hasn’t looked back – he’s played 131 games over the past two seasons with the Wild and has avoided assignment to the minors. He’s demonstrated solid consistency and defensive awareness, leading to an everyday role in the lineup when healthy.

He gets some nice seven-figure compensation because of that, and the Wild get some much-needed financial certainty out of the way without risking an arbitration ruling that could upset their delicate dance with the salary cap’s Upper Limit. CapFriendly does list the Wild with just over $7MM in projected cap space after signing Duhaime, but that’s with just 11 forwards and new contracts needed for Filip Gustavsson and Calen Addison.

While it’ll be close, getting Duhaime locked in for next season under $1.5MM is a solid win for general manager Bill Guerin. It should spare him enough room to get the Gustavsson and Addison extensions done, albeit likely short-term, and keep a core together that’s gotten the Wild to the playoffs in four straight seasons.

Duhaime finished last season with nine goals and one assist in 56 games.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the Wild and Duhaime had reached a deal.

Wild Notes: Addison, Gustavsson, Duhaime

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Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic write that they believe Minnesota Wild defenseman Calen Addison could be dealt, but they don’t believe he should be. The 23-year-old just completed his first full season in the NHL and put up good offensive numbers with three goals and 26 assists in 62 games. While those numbers are terrific for a first-year defender, 18 of his assists came on the power play, meaning that he produced just 11 points at even strength.

Trading Addison would raise some eyebrows as the Wild would be moving on from him while his value is lower than it could be. The Brandon, Manitoba native had a string of healthy scratches last year that left him out of action and also kept him from putting up something closer to 40 points. While his defensive game has some warts and he is undersized, Addison is an offensively talented right-shot defenseman, something that is coveted throughout the league.

If Minnesota opted to trade Addison it would be strictly a cap move as they are in a very delicate situation trying to navigate the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts that are taking up nearly $15MM in cap space.

In other Wild notes:

  • Russo and Smith also wrote that the Wild would love to sign goaltender Filip Gustavsson to a three-year contract extension, however, the third year in that scenario would be the first year that Gustavsson is eligible for unrestricted free agency. This would make the third year significantly more expensive, which is giving Minnesota pause. Gustavsson was terrific last season in 39 games for the Wild posting a 22-9-7 record with a .931 save percentage and a 2.10 goals-against average. Russo and Smith wonder if a one-year deal might make more sense as it would give the Wild a chance to take a longer look at the netminder before committing money and term to him. For Gustavsson he would be betting on himself and could become a restricted free agent again next summer when the cap is expected to dramatically increase.
  • Russo and Smith added that forward Brandon Duhaime tried to get a deal done with the Wild, but it has yet to materialize. They believe that the longer he goes without an extension the likelier it becomes that the 26-year-old is a possible trade candidate. Duhaime is a restricted free agent and is coming off an underwhelming season that saw him play just 51 games. The former fourth-round pick posted nine goals and a single assist last season and set a career high in goals, but he missed significant time with various injuries.

Wild Injury Notes: Klingberg, Duhaime, Reaves

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Joe Smith of The Athletic is reporting that John Klingberg will re-join the Minnesota Wild after missing the past three games with an upper body injury. Klingberg came over from the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline and has a goal and three assists in nine games since joining the Wild. Smith went onto say that it appears that Klingberg will serve in the top-4 and play alongside Jon Merrill. The Wild took five of a possible six points with Klingberg out of the lineup but will certainly welcome the offensive firepower that he adds to the backend.

Klingberg has had a nightmarish season thus far. He didn’t find that long term deal he was hoping for last summer in free agency and opted to bet on himself and sign in Anaheim for a single season. This move has largely been a failure as Klingberg struggled mightily with the Ducks notching just 24 points in 50 games. While he has struggled to this point in the season, he still has an opportunity to prove his worth with the Wild. Minnesota has had a tremendous season and with the acquisition of Klingberg, one has to assume that they see themselves as a contender to come out of a wide open Western Conference.

In other Wild injury news:

  • The Athletic’s Joe Smith is also reporting that winger Brandon Duhaime won’t play this evening due to an undisclosed illness. Duhaime is in his second season with the Wild and has nine points in 44 games, including eight goals. While Duhaime won’t fill the scoresheet, he does add an element of grit that the Minnesota will miss this evening when they do battle with their division rival. Duhaime is third on the team in hits with 126 hits on the season while averaging just over 10 minutes of ice time per game. The Wild sit one point up on Colorado for the division lead in the Central.
  • Speaking of grit, Ryan Reaves also won’t be dressing tonight as he will be sidelined with what is being described as an upper body injury. Reaves left the Wild’s 5-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday night and did not return. Little is known about Reaves injury, but with he and Duhaime on the shelf, it will make for a much easier night for Avalanche defensemen. Reaves is second on the Wild in hits this season with 134 hits in 54 games and has been an emotional catalyst for Minnesota since coming over from the New York Rangers in a mid-season trade. With Reaves and Duhaime out for tonight, and Kirill Kaprizov also sidelined, the Wild will be forced to play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in a crucial game. Joe Smith tweeted that Alex Goligoski could take some shifts at forward to offset the injuries.

West Notes: Wild, McLeod, Afanaseyev, Kesselring

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The Wild could get several key veterans back in their lineup shortly.  Randy Johnson of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune relays that while defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jacob Middleton plus wingers Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno weren’t in the lineup today, they could all be back for Sunday’s contest against Washington.  Brodin has been out the longest, missing the last four weeks with a lower-body injury which has been a big blow to their back end.  Middleton is dealing with an illness sustained earlier this week.  Meanwhile, Duhaime has missed more than two weeks with a head injury while Foligno has been out for a week with a lower-body issue of his own.  Minnesota is in the midst of a very close three-way battle for positioning in the Central and getting multiple veterans back at once could certainly give their lineup a nice boost.

More from the Western Conference:

  • Postmedia’s Jim Matheson suggests that center Ryan McLeod is dealing with a shoulder injury. He was injured on Tuesday against Ottawa and didn’t suit up versus Dallas on Thursday.  There’s no word on how long the 23-year-old will be out.  McLeod’s in the middle of a decent sophomore season, notching 11 goals and 11 assists in 55 games despite spending a lot of that time in Edmonton’s bottom six.
  • After papering him down, the Predators announced that they’ve recalled winger Egor Afanasyev to AHL Milwaukee. The 22-year-old made his NHL debut last weekend after being brought up and has gotten into three games with Nashville, logging 9:32 per night while being held off the scoresheet.  Afanasyev also has 13 goals and 13 assists in 55 games with the Admirals in the minors this season.
  • A day after being sent down, the Coyotes announced (Twitter link) that they have once again recalled defenseman Michael Kesselring from AHL Tucson on an emergency basis. The 23-year-old has played in three games with Arizona since being acquired just before the deadline, logging 18:35 per contest.  The 23-year-old has also suited up three times for the Roadrunners since the swap, picking up a goal and an assist.

West Notes: Coyotes, Carrier, Duhaime

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The Arizona Coyotes made one of the biggest deals of the season when they sent defenseman Jakob Chychrun to the Ottawa Senators for a trio of draft picks. The Coyotes will receive a first-round pick in 2023 and a pair of future second-round picks. While the initial ask was certainly higher, Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong explained his thought process to Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports.

Armstrong stated he valued the Senators first-round pick higher than most other teams next two first-round picks. The Senators are fighting for a playoff spot, but are on the outside looking in and have to leapfrog a handful of teams down the stretch to get in. If they miss, the Coyotes are guaranteed a top-16 pick which, paired with two future second-round picks, has more value than two first-round picks that would be closer to 30th overall. Armstrong said he believes this pick will be somewhere between 6-18 in a deep 2023 draft, and that was ultimately why he pulled the trigger on the Chychrun trade.

  • Per a team release, the Vegas Golden Knights will be without William Carrier for the foreseeable future. He is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury after leaving the Golden Knights 4-3 shootout win in the first period. Carrier is having a productive season with 16 goals and 25 points in 56 games but now joins Mark Stone, Nolan Patrick, Robin Lehner, Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit on the sidelines in Vegas.
  • Minnesota Wild winger Brandon Duhaime won’t play today due to injury according to Joe Smith of The Athletic relays (Twitter link). He will be re-evaluated when the team returns from their trip after tonight’s contest in Calgary. The 25-year-old has seven goals and an assist in 39 games so far.

Snapshots: Zuccarello, Hedman, Lambert

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The Minnesota Wild will be without a member of their top line this weekend. Dane Mizutani of The Pioneer Press reports that right wing Mats Zuccarello is out with an upper-body injury and won’t play in their games against the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues this weekend.

Zuccarello, now 35, is second on the Wild in scoring and is again producing at over a point-per-game pace after doing so for the first time in his career last season. His 16 goals, 24 assists, and 40 points are all second on the team behind linemate Kirill Kaprizov, who is heading to the 2023 NHL All-Star Game in South Florida, as announced last night.

However, Mizutani also reports that the Wild will get gritty winger Brandon Duhaime back in the lineup, who hasn’t played since American Thanksgiving. It doesn’t appear to be a long-term absence for Zuccarello, who Mizutani says hopes to re-join the team for next week’s road trip to New York.

  • Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman is out tonight against the Winnipeg Jets, although it’s for a positive reason. Lightning beat writer Chris Krenn notes that Hedman has returned to Tampa and is expecting the birth of his family’s second child over the next few days. Mikhail Sergachev, who actually leads all Lightning blueliners in points, steps up to the top pairing in Hedman’s absence.
  • After playing the first half of the season in the AHL, Winnipeg Jets 2022 first-round pick Brad Lambert could head to junior hockey for the first time in North America. Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek expects Lambert to end up with the top-ranked Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL “at some point” this weekend. Lambert has struggled somewhat in his post-draft season after seeing his stock fall heavily out of the top five, as he posted just one point in five games at the 2023 World Junior Championship and managed three points in 14 games with Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose.

Injury Notes: Wild, Penguins, Zub

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A mixed bag of news is coming out of Minnesota Wild practice this morning. The Star Tribune’s Sarah McLellan reports Joel Eriksson Ek is absent from practice, although injured forwards Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno are skating.

Eriksson Ek has been invaluable to Minnesota, even more so on both sides of the puck this year. He’s on pace for a career year offensively, recording 27 points through 35 contests (tied for third on the team). Duhaime has been very limited this year, playing in just 14 games due to two separate upper-body injuries. On the other hand, Foligno has been out with an undisclosed injury since December 22.

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