Minnesota Wild: Anyone Worth Acquiring From Montreal?

With the Montreal Canadiens seemingly in full dismantling mode, is there anyone worth a look for the Minnesota Wild?

With the trade of their now former captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights, it’s clear that Montreal may not exactly be in compete mode. The Minnesota Wild should definitely try to take advantage.

We floated the idea of trading for Pacioretty prior to the announcement of the Vegas deal.

Who else on their roster would be worth a look for the Minnesota Wild? Is there anyone worth a call? Anyone realistic that is; it’s probably safe to say their younger guys like Victor Mete aren’t on the table.

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Historically, ignoring his cap hit, Carey Price would be on the list. These days, maybe not so much. He struggled last year and then there’s that cap hit, of course!

Beyond him, the next best players are probably Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin, Andrew Shaw and Shea Weber.

Of those, only Gallagher and Shaw really have a chance of fitting within the cap space (including sending cap the other way) available to the Minnesota Wild.

Would either player offer the Minnesota Wild anything different or new that they don’t already have?

Brendan Gallagher offers a relatively low cap hit for a player that has had multiple seasons with 40-plus points. He’s a small but scrappy player that likes to crash the net and could easily pair with Eric Staal, I think.

Normally, you’d say that an assistant captain brings leadership to the room and wouldn’t be traded, however in Montreal it seems anything goes, of late.

Then there’s Andrew Shaw; he offers a slightly higher cap hit for fewer points per season. He brings big game experience though from his time with the Minnesota Wild’s divisional rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks.

He’s an energy guy, often making plays to stir up the opposition. However, unlike some of the antagonists of yesteryear, he can back it up with a reasonably strong 200-foot game.

However, given the cap hit and fact that the Minnesota Wild already have options in terms of defensively capable wingers, you’d think the only way we ever see his name is if there’s a creative three-way trade somewhere!

Beyond those two, there’s definitely younger names I’d love to see moved across to Minnesota; Charlie Lindgren would certainly help bring down the goaltender average age!

Mete, as mentioned before would never be a bad acquisition, but is never going to be dealt! And then there’s Noah Juulsen, another defenseman that’d be worth a call – also another that Montreal won’t lose!

All in all, it feels like there’s only scraps left. The Minnesota Wild don’t need to play the vulture here; the pickings are too slim!