ST. PAUL, Minn — The move to acquire Gustav Nyquist wasn’t splashy, bringing back the 35-year-old veteran forward for his second stint with the team.
But president of hockey operations and GM Bill Guerin wanted to give his team a much-needed boost down the stretch.
“This is a way of him saying, ‘I trust you guys and I want to win more,’” goalie Filip Gustavsson said Sunday after posting a 28-save shutout against the Bruins.
The real big additions for the Wild – they hope – will be the returns of Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, with Guerin saying Minnesota is operating as if both players will be back before the end of the regular season.
What that means is, barring a worsening update from the medical staff this week, the Wild will not be swimming in cap space by Friday’s 2 p.m. trade deadline like so many fans have hoped.
Since Kaprizov is expected to at some point be activated off LTIR and the Wild hope to avoid putting Eriksson Ek on LTIR, the Wild won’t have unlimited – or any – cap space in advance of Friday. That means anything done the rest of the week must be a “penny in, penny out” hockey trade.
“We really don’t have much (flexibility) at all,” Guerin said.
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So what you saw Sunday against Boston — along with Ryan Hartman, who returns Tuesday from a lengthy suspension — is likely the group that will have to hold down the fort until Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek return.
When could that be? Guerin still says he doesn’t know, but the expectation is it’ll be before the playoffs.
That’s the good news since they’re the Wild’s best bets to make the playoffs and go on a run. The repercussion of that, however, is this could be a quiet deadline for the Wild as opposed to the last two — one where Guerin was in pure buy mode and one where he was in pure sell mode.
But Guerin believes this team can keep its head above water and buy time for the returns of Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and now Jonas Brodin, who is once again week-to-week with a lower-body injury but is also expected back before the playoffs.
The Wild have struggled to score since early January and have been up and down in the wins department of late, so why does Guerin believe so wholeheartedly this team can get it done?
“Because of what I’ve seen this year,” Guerin said. “When we play the way we’re capable, when we do the right things, when we’re focused and execute well, then we can not just play with anybody, we can beat anybody. I think it’s up to the guys in that locker room. They have a responsibility to be on task every night, to play the way they’re capable of playing and buy time for the guys to get back.”
“Happy to be back with this group”
🗣️ Gustav Nyquist on being back in Minnesota#mnwild pic.twitter.com/UoRwwNJn88
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 3, 2025
Guerin praised the versatility of Nyquist, who slid into the Wild’s top line Sunday against the Bruins. They got a “look under the hood” two years ago when Nyquist joined before the deadline and returned from a shoulder injury just before the playoffs, so they know he can play both special teams and provide a scoring boost. Nyquist didn’t play on the penalty kill Sunday, but coach John Hynes said he didn’t want to put too much on him too soon; Nyquist will play in all situations, including six-on-five and five-on-six.
“It’s the poise, the puck pursuit, things like that,” Marcus Foligno said of Nyquist. “He’s really good in tight areas. He’s smart. He’s almost like a little bit of a (Mats Zuccarello). For the most part, it provides more offensive spark.”
There was interest in Brock Nelson, but it’s hard to know whether the Islanders are even going to trade the pending UFA, so the Wild couldn’t wait and will likely still pursue him if he gets to free agency. Jake Evans from the Canadiens also made sense as a target, but the price likely put him out of the mix. If the Canadiens think they can get multiple draft picks for him, or even up the price to a first-rounder if they package him with Joel Armia, that was too rich for the Wild’s taste.
So the Wild got ahead of the market and snagged Nyquist for a second-rounder, with the Predators retaining half of his cap hit.
“He’s just such a smart player and unique player,” said center Freddy Gaudreau. “You don’t see guys like that often. He can just beat guys with his shoulder fakes and stuff, create space and sees the game better than anybody I know. More than that, he’s such a great guy. So I was happy when I saw (we got him again) Saturday.”
Guerin noted that the risk with any trade deadline pickup is how long it takes them to get comfortable on and off the ice. That shouldn’t be the case with the savvy vet.
Even though he only played nine combined regular-season and playoff games for the Wild in 2023, the fact he spent more than two months with the Wild rehabbing his shoulder injury and getting to know his teammates and the area should help him get acclimated immediately.
Adding Nyquist put the Wild over the cap even with the Predators retaining all but $1.59 million of Nyquist’s contract, so the Wild had to make a difficult move in sending Marat Khusnutdinov down to AHL Iowa for the first time in his North American pro career. With Khusnutdinov reassigned, it’ll enable Minnesota to be cap compliant once Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek are ready to return.
Guerin said it was a tough call to make and Khusnutdinov was understandably disappointed. Because of the language barrier, Guerin gave his agent a head-up so he could better explain the situation to Khusnutdinov. Guerin said it was a business decision.
“It stinks,” Guerin said. “It stinks for him because he’s been here all year. He’s played hard. He’s played well. This is not your regular demotion. There’s a lot more to it. And it sucks.”
As for when Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek are returning, that remains murky. Guerin didn’t provide a specific or general update on when they’re coming back, or when they’ll start skating.
“Honestly, you guys have been asking me nonstop about this — I just don’t know,” Guerin said. “There’s no exact science. I can’t tell you, because what I tell you today might be different tomorrow. Things change constantly. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh he’s going to be back 17 days from now’ and he’s not back 17 days from now, you guys are going to be like, ‘What happened?’ So I don’t know.”
The only way the Wild can make a substantive trade this week is if it’s money in, money out, or if a player ends up with a regular-season ending injury. The Wild only have one game and one practice before the deadline, but the way this season is going, anything is possible.
Guerin said he’ll keep an open mind on another deal this week, but let’s be honest, there’s not many tradable pieces on the roster.
Marcus Johansson has a full no-trade clause. Hartman has a full no-move clause until it turns into a partial no-trade clause July 1. Gaudreau has a 15-team no-trade clause, but he has 13 goals and is likely needed with Eriksson Ek hurt. The Wild likely have buyer’s remorse with Yakov Trenin’s four-year, $14 million contract, but that deal would be hard to move now — and in the future.
Sure, the Wild could always look to move inexpensive pieces like Jon Merrill, Jakub Lauko or Declan Chisholm, who are in the last year of their contracts, or a youngster like Khusnutdinov, who hasn’t been great this season. Yet it was interesting how Guerin bit his tongue saying that.
Any trade Guerin makes will likely take creativity, salary retention or a third-party to broker a deal.
“I’m not kicking my feet up and just taking a break,” Guerin said. “We’re going to proceed business as usual and see what works out there. You never know — it could be a dollar for dollar. It could be an actual hockey trade. Those are pretty rare this time of year, but it could happen.”
Gus² and the Bus with the chain ⛓️ pic.twitter.com/DvCoHQCVeN
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 3, 2025
Some fans are having a tough time stomaching how many picks Guerin has traded away.
The Wild traded their 2025 first-round pick (along with third- and fourth-rounders in 2026 and a second-rounder in 2027) for David Jiricek earlier this season. Now they’ve dealt their second-round pick in 2026. Guerin said he doesn’t plan on trading any future first-rounders this week.
But with what The Athletic ranked as the league’s second-best prospect pool, Guerin said they can afford to trade a couple here and there.
“Let’s see how good the guy (the Predators) pick is,” Guerin said, sarcastically. “We’ve picked a lot and it’s more about our team right now than the pick. We’ve got plenty of prospects, we’ve got plenty of picks, we can afford a couple here and there. We’ve done that part.
“I remember it was actually a classic line. Jim Rutherford wanted to do a trade. He wanted to give up a third-round pick. And we’re all like, ‘No Jim, let’s hang on to the third-round pick.’ And he looked at us and goes, that third-round pick better be a pretty good f—ing player. And there’s a lot of truth to that. That’s great. That pick we just gave away is very valuable. Very. But that player — if they ever play — is maybe five years from now. So we don’t need to hang on to it right now.”
Guerin was “frustrated” after both losses on the last road trip to Utah and Colorado, but for different reasons. They didn’t have their “jam” on Thursday in a loss to Utah, and “stopped competing for a period of time” in their 5-2 loss to the Avalanche.
The penalty kill continues to be a big problem, ranking 31st in the league (70.5 percent after going two-for-two Sunday). The hope is that Nyquist can help with it.
“It’s driving everyone bat(—) crazy,” Guerin said. “It’s one of those things, we need more. The structure is good. The plan is good. That’s part of execution. The players on the penalty kill need to execute at a higher level. That’s just it.”
The Wild entered Sunday having lost three straight and injuries continue to pile up. There’s only been a few games this year where Minnesota had its full lineup playing together. But while the standings are getting tighter, with the Wild barely holding on to the third spot in the Central Division, Guerin likes how his team has handled adversity. That was an issue with last year’s team.
“I don’t see these guys feeling sorry for themselves,” Guerin said. “I think it would only be natural at some point in time if they were like, ‘Oh my God, another guy’s going down?’ But I love the resiliency of this team, of these players. The mentality is, it’s not about the guys out of the lineup. It’s about the guys in the lineup. … We’ve got to keep playing and buy guys time.”
Foligno echoed that sentiment Sunday.
“We gotta keep playing for the guys that are out and get them back in,” he said. “We’ll see what happens in the next week or so (with the trade deadline). But honestly, it’s gonna be huge when we get Kirill, Ekky and Jimmy back. They make such a difference. So give credit to all the guys that are coming up. But it’s just a different dynamic when you get those players (back).
“It’s one of those things where we’ve gotta keep going with this and we’ll see come Friday if we can add more to this team to help us out.”
(Photo of Gustav Nyquist: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
