Minnesota Wild: Scandella Deadline Deal Is Possible
Approaching Wednesday’s trade deadline rumors seem to be picking up around the Minnesota Wild and the possibility that they might move defenseman Marco Scandella. With a perceived down turn in performance and looming tough choices movement of the veteran defender could make sense in a deadline deal.
Minnesota Wild
The March 1st trade deadline is quickly approaching and the Minnesota Wild have a big decision to make, stand pat or make a move? The chemistry of the team seems to be the best it’s been in the history of the franchise. There are needs to be addressed, but the Wild seem to be wondering if removing a current piece is worth the addition of a new one.
That however is the view of this Wild team in the near future. Looking a bit further out into the future, the roster of the Minnesota Wild will need to change a bit just merely out of necessity. The looming crisis of having to sign and give pay raises to players like Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, and Mikael Granlund mixed with the reality that the expansion Golden Knights will select one Wild player force the team to seek avenues in which to clear salary and soften the blow of expansion.
So, stepping back to the near future with an eye on the trade deadline you can see where making a move now might sense to prepare the team for the upcoming hard offseason. Star Tribune beat writer Michael Russo brings up that speculation is abounding that defenseman Marco Scandella and his $4 million cap hit could be on the block.
Related Story: Deadline Deal Would Include Defender
The idea that Scandella could be moved is certainly a solid notion. Clearing his $4 million in cap space now does two things for the Wild.
First, if Scandella is moved in a deadline deal his cap space can immediately used towards to acquiring a forward that the Wild would need to round out their forward group going into the playoffs. That $4 million single handedly could acquire virtually any of the rumored forwards the Wild are interested in.
Second, if the Wild move Scandella’s cap space now they free up almost enough money single-handedly to afford pay raises for Niederreiter, Granlund, and possibly Haula as well. Additionally, the Wild could use the freed-up cap space to acquire rental player now at the deadline, and not re-sign him in the offseason and thus still use that cap space to help re-sign the big free agents like Niederreiter, Haula, and Granlund.
Finally, Scandella’s spot in the lineup can easily be picked-up by one of the current defenders on the Wild’s roster. With Christian Folin, Nate Prosser, and now Gustav Olofsson all proving to be solid options in the lineup you can see where trading Scandella could make some sense because the Wild have the in-house solution that can step in and play for him. The Jonas Brodin injury proved that the Wild have the depth right now to fill-in if a defender is traded, because of the success the team still had without a big defensive piece in the lineup.
The biggest question is if the Wild can get proper return for him in a trade now. Will the player acquired add to the team more that the subtraction of Scandella? That will be the biggest question the Wild will want to answer.
Sure, the future of the team is in play when talking about moving Scandella, but the Wild are lucky because they don’t have to make a move now. They can wait until the offseason and make sure they get proper value for him, and the idea of keeping the defensemen group as is now seems to be a solid move as the Wild eye a deep playoff run and know the defenders they have now would be a big part of that run.
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My gut tells me the Wild will keep Scandella for now. Michael Russo quoted GM Chuck Fletcher as saying in regard to a possible Scandella or Pominville trade “I don’t think we have any interest in that type of thing right now. Our team has played so well this year, we’ve got pretty good depth. If we do anything, it would be to add to that depth or maybe add some pieces around the edges to give us some more insurance. I want to add to our depth, not take away from it, so I don’t think we’d be cutting out any core pieces at this point.”
What Fletcher does leave the door open to is that this move could be made in the future when he says “I don’t think we have any interest in that type of thing right now.” That idea of qualifying the remark and saying “right now” says to me that Fletcher sees the utility of this move, he just doesn’t think it’s right to mess with the roster this drastically right now.
But I’ll leave you with this thought…anything can happen. The Wild could get offered a deal that would “add to their depth” by trading Scandella before the trade deadline and therefore he could be moved. The problem here though is that it seems with the trade market the way it is right now, there does not seem to be available players that would add to the depth of the Wild overall if Scandella was subtracted from that depth. Still the words anything can happen is really what I want to leave you with when it comes to a Scandella trade before Wednesday’s trade deadline.