Wild Recall Dakota Mermis, Reassign Vinni Lettieri
The Wild recalled defenseman Dakota Mermis from AHL Iowa today, per a team announcement. Minnesota sent forward Vinni Lettieri to Iowa in a corresponding move to remain under the Upper Limit of the salary cap.
Mermis, 29, has appeared in 20 games for the Wild since signing as a free agent in 2020, recording two goals and three assists in 15:30 of average ice time. After clearing waivers, the Wild recalled Mermis early this season as injuries struck their blueline, playing him in a career-high 13 contests. After notching his only five points as a member of the Wild and recording a -1 rating, the Wild placed Mermis on waivers again in November, shortly after the return of captain Jared Spurgeon from injury, officially assigning him to Iowa less than a week later.
He’s only appeared in four games for Iowa since his November demotion. The left-shot defender has one assist, a -1 rating and 12 penalty minutes after recording 26 points in 63 games for Iowa last season. While Spurgeon likely won’t miss any time after departing yesterday’s win over the Blackhawks with an apparent lower-body injury, recent trade acquisition Zach Bogosian is banged up and likely to miss time on their upcoming Pacific Division road trip with an upper-body injury. With Bogosian not headed for long-term injured reserve, the Wild only have sufficient cap space for one extra player – meaning they’ll carry 12 forwards and seven defensemen for the trip instead of 13 forwards and six defensemen.
This is Letteri’s second demotion of the season after clearing waivers last month. The 28-year-old had played in two out of three games since his subsequent call-up on November 28, sitting as a healthy scratch against the Blackhawks yesterday and playing a limited role when in the lineup. A point-per-game threat in the minors, Lettieri has averaged 10:43 through 13 NHL appearances this season with two goals and one assist. The Minnesota-born center has 96 NHL games under his belt, dating back to the 2017-18 season with the Rangers, and remains a high-end AHL talent in his prime.
The Wild did not need to expose Lettieri to waivers because he had been on the NHL roster for less than 30 days and played less than 10 games since he cleared last month.
Minnesota Wild Activate Alex Goligoski, Assign Mermis And Lettieri To AHL
After some recent indication that defenseman Alex Goligoski was healthy and ready to return to the Minnesota Wild lineup, the team has officially announced his activation of the LTIR. In order to make cap space to return Goligoski to the lineup, the team also assigned Vinni Lettieri (placed on waivers yesterday) and Dakota Mermis to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
According to CapFriendly, with these moves, Minnesota has a projected cap space of $617K, which translates to roughly $806K in actual salary cap space. With only 21 players on the active roster, two of those being goaltenders, the Wild really only have the capability to bring up one league-minimum salary unless other changes are made.
Goligoski will likely return to a bottom-pairing role, or even become an extra defenseman on the Minnesota blue line, given his level of play and injury history over last season and the current one. He has missed all but two games for the Wild this season, carrying a -3 rating with zero points.
Mermis, on the other hand, has done relatively well filling in the shoes of Goligoski. In 13 games played in his absence, Mermis has two goals and three assists and has shown a skill for blocking shots in his defensive zone. With a $775K salary for the 2023-24 season, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for the Wild to keep Mermis rather than Goligoski down the stretch.
For Lettieri, it was not a major surprise to see his name on the waiver wire yesterday, as he has operated as a depth forward option in the NHL for the last several years. In 11 games for Minnesota this year, Lettieri chipped in two goals but regularly averaged less than 12 minutes of ice time per night, indicating the Wild were not giving him very important minutes.
Dakota Mermis Clears Waivers
Saturday: No team put in a claim for Mermis, Friedman reports.
Friday: The Wild have waived defenseman Dakota Mermis for the purpose of assignment to the AHL’s Iowa Wild, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Friday.
Mermis, 29, has been with the Wild since signing as a free agent in the 2020 offseason. His first season with the club was spent almost entirely on the infamous 2020-21 taxi squad, playing just three games all season, all in the NHL. Since then, he’s logged heavy minutes for the AHL’s Iowa Wild, serving as an alternate captain since his debut with the club in 2021-22. He was not on Minnesota’s opening night roster this season but was recalled just a few days into the campaign with multiple injuries affecting the Wild’s defense core.
20 of Mermis’ 40 NHL appearances have come in a Wild jersey over the past four seasons, including a career-high 13 this season. He’s notched two goals, three assists, five points, and an even plus-minus rating in 15:30 of average ice time with Minnesota, with all of his points coming in 2023-24. Most commonly paired with Jacob Middleton and Jonathon Merrill, he has a Corsi share of 47.8% at even strength, 4.7% worse than the Wild’s Corsi share when Mermis is not on the ice.
To put it succinctly, Mermis has done about as well as you can expect for a minor-league veteran plugged into a defense that’s dealt with structural issues this season. He’d managed to stay in the lineup over the past few games after the return of captain Jared Spurgeon to the lineup, but with veteran Zach Bogosian now in the fold after a trade for the Lightning, Mermis was losing his grip on a roster spot and saw his ice time slip.
Since he’s played more than ten games and his recall lasted more than 30 days, he again requires waivers to return to Iowa. As a pending unrestricted free agent on a two-way deal, there’s a decent chance the Wild lose Mermis on the wire if a team deems they need some short-term blueline depth on the cheap.
Snapshots: Lindgren, Schmid, Mermis
Charlie Lindgren has been announced as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, after prematurely leaving the team’s Monday practice. Lindgren played the entirety of Washington’s recent game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, saving 31 of the 35 shots that he faced. Lindgren is in the second year of a three-year, $3.3MM contract with the Capitals. He played in 31 games last season, starting in 26, recording a 13-11-3 record and a .899 save percentage.
Washington has recalled Clay Stevenson in response to Lindgren’s injury. Stevenson has appeared in two games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears so far this season, recording a split record and .900 save percentage. Washington signed Stevenson out of Dartmouth College at the end of the 2021-22 season. He appeared in 36 ECHL games last season, recording a .916 save percentage.
Other notes from around the league:
- There have reportedly yet to be talks of a contract extension between the New Jersey Devils and goaltender Akira Schmid. This report comes after Elliotte Friedman speculated whether extension talks have started yet, as the Devils have shown a pattern of wanting to extend younger players earlier in the season. Schmid has played in one game this season, allowing three goals and recording an overtime loss.
- The Athletic’s Michael Russo expects the Wild to send defender Dakota Mermis to the AHL and recall a forward for the team’s upcoming three-game homestand – assuming they get through the final game of their road trip unscathed. The Wild only have $51K in cap space, limiting their options to recall. They currently have six forwards with a cap hit equal to, or less than, Mermis, including recent signee Jujhar Khaira.
Minnesota Wild Recall Dakota Mermis
The Minnesota Wild have recalled defenseman Dakota Mermis from the Iowa Wild of the AHL. Head coach Dean Evason hinted that the team would need to recall a player to serve as insurance for any injury or illness that comes up as Minnesota embarks on a two-game road trip this weekend. Bringing up a defender like Mermis makes sense, as the Wild are still grappling with captain Jared Spurgeon‘s injury.
Mermis has strung together 27 NHL games since making his debut in the 2017-18 season, though he’s failed to appear in more than 10 NHL games in one single season. The bulk of his career has instead been played in the AHL, where he’s amassed 426 career games. This includes 63 games with the Iowa Wild last season, where Mermis recorded a career-high 26 points. He also tallied 73 penalty minutes – an exciting succession to the 86 penalty minutes he recorded in 59 games during the 2021-22 season. Mermis currently has the cheapest cap hit of any defender in the Wild organization, signed to a league-minimum $775K salary through the end of this season. He’s also one of the older blue-liners in the system, with only five defenders
While Mermis has been recalled for the road trip, it doesn’t seem there is currently a plan for him to start. He’ll instead serve as the team’s seventh defender, as young players like Calen Addison and Brock Faber slot into the lineup ahead of him. If Mermis finds his way into the lineup on this road trip and how Minnesota utilizes the price-controlled defender throughout the season will be worth monitoring, as Mermis looks to fight his way into a consistent NHL role.
Waivers: 10/04/23
10/05/23: Per Sportsnets’ Elliotte Friedman, all players on the waiver wire yesterday have cleared (X Link).
10/04/23: Teams continue to trim their rosters ahead of the regular season, which starts in just six days. That means multiple players will hit the waiver wire daily until opening night rosters are due, and today is no different. Per TSN’s Chris Johnston, 12 players were waived today at 1 p.m. CT, 11 of whom have NHL experience. As a reminder, a waiver placement is a prerequisite for qualified players for assignment to the AHL but not necessarily an indication that a demotion to the minors will immediately happen. NHL teams can send a player down to the minors within 30 days or 10 games played of the date the player originally cleared waivers. After that time, their waiver clock will reset, and they will need to clear again.
Anaheim Ducks
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
Minnesota Wild
F Jujhar Khaira
F Vinni Lettieri
D Dakota Mermis
F Nic Petan
New Jersey Devils
Nashville Predators
San Jose Sharks
Winnipeg Jets
Minnesota Wild Extend Three Players
Before free agency kicks off tomorrow afternoon, the Minnesota Wild are taking care of some small pieces. The team has announced they have signed Zane McIntyre, Dakota Mermis, and Nick Swaney each to a one-year, $775K extension, all of them being two-way deals.
Under reasonable expectations, all three players should be beginning the 2023-24 season with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. Mermis has the most experience at the NHL level throughout the group, having played 27 games split between the Arizona Coyotes, New Jersey Devils, and now with the Wild. Over those 27 games, Mermis has produced pretty tepid numbers, scoring one goal and three assists, averaging about 15 minutes of ice time per night throughout his career. At the minor-league level, he has been much more serviceable, scoring five goals and 21 assists in 63 games last season in Iowa.
McIntyre’s last taste of NHL action came all the way back during the 2016-17 season, playing with the Boston Bruins, producing a record of 0-4-1 in eight games. For the last two years, McIntyre has been a part of the Minnesota Wild organization, earning a total record of 35-26-8. Last season was a bit of a rough stretch for McIntyre, as he ended the regular season with a SV% of only .899, 21 points lower than the previous year.
Lastly, Swaney has the least amount of experience at the NHL level, having only played one game last year for Minnesota. He was originally drafted 209th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft, not making the jump to the Wild organization until 2021. Despite being such a relatively low pick, Swaney has actually produced quite well at the AHL level, scoring 35 goals and 35 assists over 116 regular season games for the Iowa Wild. Even with injuries to the NHL roster, it is unlikely that Swaney will receive a call-up, but he does provide the organization with a bit of depth at the AHL level.
Minnesota Wild Recall Nine Players
The Iowa Wild were eliminated from Calder Cup contention a few days ago, but it isn’t summer vacation for all their players yet. Nine members of Iowa’s roster are on their way to join the Minnesota Wild as a set of “Black Aces,” players who will practice with the club and serve as injury insurance in the playoffs.
Adam Beckman, Steven Fogarty, Nic Petan, Marco Rossi, Nick Swaney, Samuel Walker, Daemon Hunt, Dakota Mermis, and Zane McIntyre have all been recalled.
Of course, after dropping game five on Tuesday the Wild are on the brink of elimination themselves. They’ll take on the Dallas Stars in a do-or-die matchup tomorrow night, trying to force a game seven in the first-round series.
All but Hunt have appeared in the NHL previously. The 20-year-old defenseman is in his first professional season after being selected 65th overall in 2020, and posted 11 points in 59 regular season games for Iowa.
The others are a mix of minor league veterans and top prospects. Rossi falls into the latter category, though his time in the NHL this year didn’t go well. The 2020 ninth-overall pick registered just a single assist (and no goals) in 19 games with Minnesota. While his development has been interrupted by health issues, Rossi’s inability to grab a roster spot was one of the season’s low points for the Wild.
There is at least a possibility that someone from this group does enter the lineup. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Hartman are both not practicing today, though their status for tomorrow’s game is unclear.
Minnesota Wild Recall Dakota Mermis
The Minnesota Wild have recalled defenseman Dakota Mermis from the AHL’s Iowa Wild under emergency conditions, the team announced Wednesday afternoon.
While the Wild appear to have seven healthy defensemen on the roster, The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith report that Mermis’ emergency recall comes in anticipation of injury or illness-related absences. Smith notes that an unnamed defender was banged up in last night’s win against the Los Angeles Kings and that Jonas Brodin isn’t in full health. Brodin’s missed time with a lower-body injury on two separate occasions this season.
Mermis, 29, is a versatile defenseman in his third season with the Wild organization. Stationed on taxi squad duty in his first year, 2020-21, he’s since put up eight goals and 40 assists in 105 AHL games with the Iowa Wild, maintaining his status as one of their top defenders.
He made two appearances with the Wild last season, going without a point. If he does appear in a Wild uniform on this call-up, it will be his first appearance of 2022-23.
Minnesota Wild Waive Dakota Mermis
October 29: Mermis has cleared waivers and is cleared to head to Iowa, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and NorthStar Bets.
October 28: The Minnesota Wild have placed defenseman Dakota Mermis on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
The move was necessitated by Mermis’ return to health from an injury he suffered in the preseason. He had been on the team’s injured reserve list, and now that he’s healthy he must clear waivers in order to be sent to the AHL.
Mermis, 28, is an undrafted defenseman who has fashioned a nice career for himself as a depth defenseman. The former London Knight made his professional debut for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 2015-16, and then moved on to the Tucson Roadrunners and Arizona Coyotes organization after that season. In Arizona, Mermis’ development accelerated, and by his second season there he had even earned his first NHL call-up.
Now a member of his third NHL organization, Mermis has 25 NHL games played on his resume. He spent most of last season with the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Iowa, and will now head back to Des Moines to begin his 2022-23 season.
Last year Mermis had a healthy 24 points in 59 games and this year should resume his role as a valuable veteran contributor for the Wild’s top minor league affiliate.