Minnesota Wild: Are the Wild Looking to Sign Vermette?
As the Minnesota Wild look to add one more NHL ready forward, a new rumor as to who that could be has emerged. An announcement yesterday by Antoine Vermette’s agent has said their decision between five possible teams offers will be made today, could the Wild be one of those teams?
The Arizona Coyotes in a somewhat surprising move decided to buyout 34-year old center Antoine Vermette at the beginning of this month. The Coyotes needed to clear roster spaces for up and coming forwards to take over. Since then the interest in teams looking to gain Vermette’s services has grown leading up to now. In a release on Twitter from Vermette’s agent, he announces that he and his client have received offers from 5 different teams and will make a decision on who he will sign with sometime today. With tons of speculation about who those teams are, could the Minnesota Wild be among them?
Antoine Vermette has received 5 offers from NHL teams and will be making a decision on the various offers by Monday.
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 13, 2016
Back on June 26th Michael Russo of the Star Tribune reported that GM Chuck Fletcher had some talks with the Coyotes about a possible swap. Although Russo reported the names involved on the Arizona side were Martin Hanzal and Christian Dvorak, you have to think that Vermette’s name was at least thrown around being a center and a player that the Coyotes were willing to part with. The only question seems to be if Fletcher was interested or not.
Related Story: Minnesota Wild in Talks With Arizona Coyotes on Possible Swap
Fast forward to today, the Wild still have the need for an NHL ready forward. Vermette would certainly fit that order. Despite being bought out it can be argued that Vermette’s performance last season was strong. He tallied 38 points (17 goals and 21 assists) which might have been a little underperforming for his $3.75 million, so that mixed with the need for the Coyotes free up his lineup spot led to his buyout. He still produced and will be able to produce.
Perhaps the largest issue with his decline could be the pure fact of the team around him in Arizona. The Coyotes offense was anemic finishing 25th in the NHL in goals for (209), and 21st in power play percentage. That could explain why Vermette had such a down year. After all, in the 2014-15 playoffs when he played for Chicago on their Stanley Cup winning squad he posted a solid seven points (4 goals and 3 assists) in 20 games.
So do the Wild have the right situation for Vermette to find his 20+ goal form? Maybe so as he would most likely be on the fourth line and would be the scorer on that line, as the Wild under Boudreau will look to roll four quality scoring lines. Also he’ll have the ability to be an up and down player who can fill in on just about any line in case of an injury. So the situation for Vermette to do great things with the Wild is there, and he would be a solid addition to the lineup.
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The issue here as to if the Wild are one of the five interested teams has to revolve around how they see their chances of signing other free-agents, and what price Vermette is demanding. Matt Cullen seems like a sure thing, but the question has been why hasn’t he signed with the Wild yet? Could there be another suitor for his services that is keeping Cullen’s price up in the air? So if Cullen is balking could the Wild be bidding for a more affordable Vermette? If Vermette is demanding a salary that is around $1 million, the Wild could certainly be one of the five teams because of his potential upside. Likely though he’s demanding more if five clubs have made offers.
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So realistically the Wild could be in the mix for Vermette, and they’d be improved if they sign him. Still my gut says between him and Cullen, it’ll be Cullen because his price will be a better fit for what the Wild want to do cap wise. But if Vermette’s price is close to or under what Cullen is offering the Wild may be looking to lock up a ready Vermette as opposed to waiting for a maybe Cullen. I guess we’ll know the answer to that sometime today.