Heading into the trade deadline, The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith will update this trade and news tracker with all of the goings-on of the Minnesota Wild, so be sure to bookmark it and return often.
Latest on Nyquist pursuit
Russo and Smith, March 1
Struggling to score or kill a penalty, the Wild are trying to tap into an old well by reacquiring Gustav Nyquist from the Nashville Predators, multiple sources tell The Athletic.
To protect the health of the pending free agent, the Predators will scratch Nyquist, 35, Saturday when they plays the New York Islanders.
As of late Saturday morning, league sources told The Athletic that multiple teams were still pursuing Nyquist. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported there was a complication holding up a deal with the Wild.
Nyquist has no-trade protection, so it’s not that.
For the Wild, it could be many things.
First is cap space. Without the Predators retaining a significant portion or a third-party conduit being involved, it’s hard to figure out how the Wild can make the math work unless a rostered player is going to Nashville in return or if Joel Eriksson Ek ($5.25 million average annual value) or Kirill Kaprizov ($9 million AAV) is out for the rest of the regular season.
Another issue could be roster spots. Ryan Hartman will serve his eighth and final game of his suspension Sunday when the Wild host the Boston Bruins, and he takes up one spot on their 23-player roster.
To add Nyquist without trading a player away, the Wild can reassign Brendan Gaunce, Devin Shore or Liam Ohgren. But with defensemen Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian hurt as of Friday night, the Wild need to know the extent of their injuries in case they need to recall a defenseman like David Jiricek. Plus, with a two-game upcoming road trip to Seattle and Vancouver, one would think they’d want to make sure they have an extra defenseman.
Nyquist, acquired by general manager Bill Guerin from the Columbus Blue Jackets for a conditional fifth-round pick two years ago while he was sidelined with a shoulder injury, scored a goal and four assists in three regular-season games for the Wild, then a team-leading five assists during Minnesota’s first-round loss to the Dallas Stars in six games.
Because of the chemistry Marcus Johansson had with Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy and because he was less expensive, the cap-strapped Wild opted to re-sign Johansson to a two-year, $4 million contract ($2 million AAV) after the 2022-23 season rather than bringing back Nyquist, who signed a two-year, $6.37 million contract ($3.185 million AAV) with the Predators.
Nyquist scored 23 goals and 75 points in 81 games for Nashville last season. He has had a down year for the 30th-place Predators this season, scoring nine goals and 21 points in 57 games with a minus-20 rating.
As rough as life has been for the Predators, they are tied for eighth in the NHL on the penalty kill at 80.9 percent.
Nyquist ranks fourth amongst Predators forwards in shorthanded time on ice at 75:04 and averages 1:20 per game. He has gotten 26.6 percent of their penalty kill minutes and is deployed on the fly 69 percent of the time.
His on-ice goal differential while shorthanded is minus-7.
The Wild have lost three consecutive games, scoring five times in that stretch. They have allowed six power-play goals in four games since the break and rank 31st in the NHL on the penalty kill (70.1 percent).
Centers to target
Russo, Feb. 26
Remember when it looked like the Wild were set for a pretty boring trade deadline?
You know, like a week ago.
Funny how quickly things change in the NHL.
Or frightening.
Minnesota went from a team with absolutely no cap space or ability to make a splash to, all of a sudden, a group that could have a really interesting and impactful week.
The fact that the Wild don’t know when superstar Kirill Kaprizov will return is one thing.
But the more recent injury to Joel Eriksson Ek (week to week with a lower-body injury) could give them the cap space and the more pressing need by the 2 p.m. Central March 7 deadline.
GO DEEPER
Wild’s Joel Eriksson Ek week-to-week with lower-body injury as hits keep coming
“He’s the engine that kind of drives our team,” defenseman Jake Middleton said.
Kaprizov holds a $9 million cap hit. Eriksson Ek has a $5.25 million cap hit.
The Wild hope to get clarity on Kaprizov’s timetable by the deadline. If there’s a chance he could return at some point next month, it wouldn’t be prudent to intentionally hold him out to pull some Tampa Bay Lightning/Vegas Golden Knights long-term-injured-reserve magic.
The Wild aren’t a lock to make the playoffs even with a nine-point cushion, and Kaprizov returning is their best way to ensure a berth. Plus, you don’t want a repeat of two years ago, when Kaprizov missed 15 of the last 17 regular-season games and was rusty in the playoffs against the Dallas Stars.
Now, if Kaprizov is done for the rest of the regular season, a high-scoring winger like Brock Boeser would be intriguing, especially with Marcus Johansson playing top-six minutes all season and having just five goals in 49 games to show for it.
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NHL trade board 7.0: The 4 Nations break is over, and things are about to get real
If the Wild know Eriksson Ek’s regular season is potentially over, on the other hand, they could (and must!) use his cap space to make a trade for a center.
The Wild have done a decent job keeping their heads above water, but it will be a chore to play this long without a center of Eriksson Ek’s caliber. He’s their best matchup center, and they have games coming against the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Jack Eichel, Roope Hintz, Elias Pettersson and Jack Hughes.
Marco Rossi (21 goals, 50 points) keeps stepping up, but Freddy Gaudreau, Marat Khusnutdinov and Devin Shore are the centers behind him. And what happens if one of them gets hurt? Ryan Hartman, at least, is due to return to the lineup from his eight-game suspension March 4 in Seattle.
GO DEEPER
NHL reduces Ryan Hartman’s suspension to 8 games, hopes it’s a ‘wake-up call’ for Wild forward
If the Wild do find themselves swimming in cap space before the deadline, the biggest question is whether they’d have the assets to compete with other teams.
They already traded their 2025 first-round pick in the David Jiricek deal, so unless general manager Bill Guerin is willing to trade a future first (or firsts) for a center and scoring winger, the Wild have their second-round pick to dangle plus prospects. And if you’re the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres or Vancouver Canucks — three likely trade partners — you know they’re going to be asking about prospects that are likely untouchable like Danila Yurov and Zeev Buium.
Now, would the Wild consider trading Liam Oghren, Riley Heidt, Hunter Haight or prospects of that ilk? They’d probably have no choice with no 2025 first-round pick to try to hook a fish.
We’ll be writing a lot about the deadline in the coming days, but here are some centers we can see the Wild pursuing.
(Note: One other center the Wild could have interest in is the Boston Bruins’ Trent Frederic, but he was injured Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.)
Brock Nelson, N.Y. Islanders
Nelson, a well-known superstar of the Da Beauty League, makes the most sense because he would help the Wild in many ways now and in the future, since the Wild would want to keep the pending free agent.
Guerin and assistant GM Chris Kelleher have great respect for what Nelson brings to the ice, as evidenced by the Warroad native being chosen to the U.S. roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Pursuing him in free agency always seemed likely, but now that the Wild need a center immediately and could have the room to make it work, pursuing him via trade makes even more sense.
Long way from Warroad for Brock Nelson pic.twitter.com/8TIcGizqzr
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 2, 2023
The 33-year-old Islanders lifer is strong in the faceoff circle, a good penalty killer and chips in offensively. He’s also versatile enough to play in the top six at center or wing or be a matchup center on the third line.
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello might want to re-sign him, but Nelson wants to win long-term, and even though he said all the right things at the 4 Nations Face-Off, it may have been telling that he knows his run is up when the New York Post’s Ethan Sears asked him at the tournament what it would mean to him to finish his career with the Islanders and Nelson began to well up.
GO DEEPER
Brock Nelson on ‘break’ from trade talk, Auston Matthews kicked off the team, more: U.S. 4 Nations notes
Dylan Cozens, Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres may be ripe for the picking, and it’s sure telling that Wild pro scouts keep attending their games. Kelleher was in attendance Tuesday night when the Sabres rallied to beat the Anaheim Ducks with Cozens assisting on all three goals.
Of course, the Wild probably like many of their players, from Alex Tuch — originally drafted by the Wild in the first round in 2014 — to young JJ Peterka.
But Cozens feels like a Guerin type of player.
At 24 years old, he brings size (6-foot-3), skill and upside. This is a kid who scored 31 goals and 68 points in his third season. Remember, he was a star coming out of junior. He helped Canada win gold at the 2020 World Juniors and scored eight goals and 16 points at the 2021 World Juniors. It was the fifth-most points by a Canadian in World Juniors history, though Canada’s run ended with a loss in the gold medal game to Brock Faber, Matt Boldy and the Americans.
The concern with Cozens is he’s had a couple down years in a row. It just doesn’t seem like he’s been the same player since Garnet Hathaway crushed him in a fight two years ago.
dylan cozens knocks on the garnet hathaway door. that was a mistake pic.twitter.com/U31AqDw5Is
— Liam McHugh (@liam_mchugh) November 4, 2023
The most enticing thing about Cozens is cost certainty. He has five years left on a contract with a $7.1 million cap hit, so this would be a hockey trade and require significant assets — because you know several other teams are interested in him, too.
If the Wild acquired Cozens, it would be hard to re-sign Rossi — a pending restricted free agent — this offseason unless a Cozens pickup simply results in the Wild abandoning their other free-agency plans.
Scott Laughton, Philadelphia Flyers
Laughton is known as a culture guy — a solid hockey player who contributes with checking, scoring (40-point pace) and leadership.
The Flyers don’t have to trade him because he has another year on his contract at a reasonable $3 million, but teams are calling. It has been reported that the Flyers want a first-round pick for him, which, as mentioned, could be a problem for the Wild and one that would force them to get more creative to entice the Flyers.
Even though Laugton’s not exactly a top-six center, he’s a solid penalty-killer who plays with grit.
Yanni Gourde, Seattle Kraken
Gourde, at 5-foot-9, is on the smaller side, but he brings a lot of the tenacity and toughness that Eriksson Ek does. The two-time Stanley Cup champion can still play in a shutdown role, is a strong penalty killer and pulls teammates into the fight.
Gourde’s offensive game has taken a dip in the past couple seasons, and he has just six goals in 35 games this season. Injuries are also a concern as Gourde, 33, has been banged up a couple of times this season. He’s been sidelined due to sports hernia surgery since the end of January, which was expected to put him out five to seven weeks.
He has returned to practice for Seattle, though.
Gourde, a pending UFA, carries a $5.16 million cap hit, which is similar to Eriksson Ek’s. He’s not a guy you’d bring in to be a consistent top-six player, but his game is made for playoff hockey. And he likely won’t cost as much on the market as a Brock Nelson.
Jake Evans, Montreal Canadiens
Evans won’t move the needle much, but the seventh-round pick has become a reliable checker and penalty killer and could be available for a modest price. According to The Athletic’s Arpon Basu, the pending UFA’s camp and the team haven’t been close in negotiations, so he and penalty-kill-partner Joel Armia are both trade bait.
Evans, 28, brings a little size at 6 feet and 185 pounds, is reliable defensively and could help one of the Wild’s biggest weaknesses (the penalty kill), especially with Eriksson Ek out. His cap hit is also pretty low, too, at $1.7 million, so he could be part of multiple moves at the deadline.
Who says no?
Have an idea for a trade the Minnesota Wild should make ahead of the NHL’s March 7 deadline? Submit it here, and The Athletic will do some digging and give you a reality check on whether president of team operations and general manager Bill Guerin would nix it, whether the other side would nix it, or even, in some cases, whether the deal might actually work.
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5 burning questions
Russo and Smith, Feb. 24
Coming off one of their most exciting wins of the season Saturday afternoon in Detroit, the Minnesota Wild are officially in the stretch drive with the March 7 trade deadline right around the corner and 25 games left in their season — 15 of which come at home.
On pace for 104 points, the Wild have a 99 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to Dom Luszczyszyn’s model.
But there are a number of questions as the team tries to make last season’s playoff absence a one-off. We tackle a handful of them in our weekly Insider.
When will Kirill Kaprizov return?
Who knows at this point? Even Bill Guerin claims to not know.
If you’re frustrated, think about how frustrated the Russian star must be, going from being a Hart Trophy front-runner to questionable for the rest of the regular season.
“It’s going to be longer than we thought,” Guerin told The Athletic last week. “I don’t really know (how long). I can’t get into specifics, because I just don’t know them. He’s going to be out longer.”
Kaprizov scored 23 goals and 50 points in his first 34 games — an 82-game pace of 55 goals and 121 points. Who knew at the time of his easy rebound goal on Dec. 23 against Chicago that it would be his last goal in at least several months?
But in a shroud of mystery, Kaprizov wasn’t on the team’s charter for the first game out of the holiday break to Dallas, and was initially listed as “day to day” but suddenly missed a month while going in and out of town to see specialists and seek treatment.
He returned for three games and had two assists, but wasn’t playing up to his standards and ultimately underwent surgery for a lower-body injury.
Kaprizov was supposed to miss a minimum of four weeks, but on Feb. 8, Guerin ominously said “Hopefully Kirill will be back at some point this year” on KFAN’s “Beyond the Pond.”
In the two weeks since, Guerin told The Athletic he meant he just doesn’t know what the timetable is right now. Asked if that meant something else was discovered during surgery, Guerin said, “It’s just the rehab. It was what it was. It’s all I can really say — just give it a little longer.”
Kaprizov hasn’t skated since the surgery.
The Wild are 12-7 since the Kaprizov ordeal began, including wins in five of seven games in this latest stint without him. He has missed 20 games total this season, with the Wild going 12-7-1.
Read the full article here.
(Top photos of Brock Nelson and Dylan Cozens: Steph Chambers and Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)
