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Minnesota Wild: Players Most Likely To Be Traded This Season

By Luke Ryan |
DENVER, CO - APRIL 06: Mikael Granlund #64 of the Minnesota Wild celebrates a goal against the Colorado Avalanche with his bench at the Pepsi Center on April 6, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. The Wild defeated the Avalanche 4-3. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - APRIL 06: Mikael Granlund #64 of the Minnesota Wild celebrates a goal against the Colorado Avalanche with his bench at the Pepsi Center on April 6, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. The Wild defeated the Avalanche 4-3. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
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ST. PAUL, MN – FEBRUARY 2: Charlie Coyle #3 of the Minnesota Wild watches from the bench against the Vegas Golden Knights during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 2, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN – FEBRUARY 2: Charlie Coyle #3 of the Minnesota Wild watches from the bench against the Vegas Golden Knights during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 2, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The Minnesota Wild are in a constant state of flux. The burden of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter‘s long-term deals makes building a solid core a constant challenge. There’s every chance players have to leave for the team to grow.

Now, of course if the team are outside of playoff contention as we near the Trade Deadline, this all becomes very much the expected course of action.

Typically, any team that knows it’s not making the playoffs will sacrifice some solid depth players, that second-line guy on an expiring deal or the veteran that deserves a chance at the Cup.

You trade away players in return for draft picks or generally B-grade prospects. The sorts of guys that will help you in the future but offer no additional benefit in the short-term. The exact opposite of those professionals you give up on.

For the Minnesota Wild, they meet all of those needs so depending how the season ahead actually pans out, these are the guys I see as most likely not to be hanging around too long.

Then again, we could once again defy the expectations of everyone and make yet another run at the play-offs. Who knows; maybe this year is the year we make it out of the first round and actually inflict some damage on our rivals?

Either way, I figure we look at the obvious candidates to find themselves on the trade block at some point this year for the Minnesota Wild.

WINNIPEG, MB – APRIL 13: Zach Parise #11 of the Minnesota Wild keeps an eye on the play during first period action against the Winnipeg Jets in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell MTS Place on April 13, 2018 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jets defeated the Wild 4-1 to lead the series 2-0. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)
WINNIPEG, MB – APRIL 13: Zach Parise #11 of the Minnesota Wild keeps an eye on the play during first period action against the Winnipeg Jets in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell MTS Place on April 13, 2018 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jets defeated the Wild 4-1 to lead the series 2-0. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images) /

I’d Be Shocked: Zach Parise

This would be a truly shocking turn of events. The likelihood of new Minnesota Wild General Manager, Paul Fenton ditching this contract is highly unlikely.

But, stranger things have happened in the NHL.

Maybe there’s a team that see the chance to put the oft-injured Zach Parise on long-term injured reserve in a couple of years’ time and see out his years, getting paid to be injured.

It seems crazy, but it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened in the NHL. Look at Stephane Robidas or Joffrey Lupul with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Both sat out the tail end of the contracts on long-term injured reserve. David Clarkson and Nathan Horton also spring to mind.

The real challenge there is that Parise needs to be genuinely injured so as not to count towards a rosters’ ongoing cap space.

Whilst he has had his injury issues, last campaign was the first where he only appeared in half of the team’s games.

A $7.5 million cap hit until the 2024-25 season is a hard sell on anyone, especially since loading the prospect cupboard and turning an organisation around these days only seems to take five years, at most.

Long gone too is the player that produced 94 points for the New Jersey Devils back in the 2008-09 campaign. These days, you’re looking at a player that can be relied upon for somewhere in the realm of 40 to 50 points a season.

Not exactly elite level statistics, especially given he’s a player turning 35 next birthday!

I’m putting this in the bucket of ‘far too hard’ which means if it does happen, Paul Fenton is a truly impressive General Manager and I’ll be sure to tip my hat to him!

ST. PAUL, MN – DECEMBER 27: Greg Pateryn #29 of the Dallas Stars skates with the puck while Jason Zucker #16 of the Minnesota Wild defends during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on December 27, 2017 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN – DECEMBER 27: Greg Pateryn #29 of the Dallas Stars skates with the puck while Jason Zucker #16 of the Minnesota Wild defends during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on December 27, 2017 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /

It Could Happen: Greg Pateryn

Greg Pateryn is an interesting case here for the Minnesota Wild. He’s newly arrived with the team and still has a couple of years to run on his contract meaning he wouldn’t be a rental in a traditional sense.

However, he’s a right-handed defenseman in a league that puts high value on right-side defensemen.

Here’s a player that bounced back and forth between the Montreal Canadiens and their AHL affiliate for several seasons before finally getting a proper season of NHL experience last year with the Dallas Stars.

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In that time, he showed himself to be effective. He didn’t show a great scoring touch but equally didn’t do too much negative; his 50 penalty minutes aren’t exactly high, showing that he was reliable in not putting his team at a disadvantage.

He can be relied upon for 20 minutes a night and maintained a 49.54 CF% (Corsi For), suggesting that keeping the puck away from the opposing team isn’t too challenging for him.

I look at Pateryn as exactly the kind of player that can sit in the Minnesota Wild top-four and make a really strong sales pitch to any team seeking some defensive stability nearer the Trade Deadline.

The Minnesota Wild depth chart has somewhat of a log-jam on defense, so he’s the perfect option to move out whilst there are guys on far cheaper entry-level contracts available to the team.

Whilst I’m not going to say he’s this year’s Kevin Shattenkirk at the deadline; should the Minnesota Wild not be in a competitive place – maybe he’s someone who gets made available and is worth betting on for a Stanley Cup contender.

A $2.25 million AAV isn’t going to blow out anyone’s budget too much; it’s just if the team is willing to take him on longer-term as he’s not going to just be a rental.

LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 05: Charlie Coyle #3 of the Minnesota Wild shoots the puck as Dustin Brown #23 of the Los Angeles Kings defends during the third period of a game at Staples Center on April 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 05: Charlie Coyle #3 of the Minnesota Wild shoots the puck as Dustin Brown #23 of the Los Angeles Kings defends during the third period of a game at Staples Center on April 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

Surely It Will: Charlie Coyle

I’ve touched on this before; I’m all for trading Charlie Coyle whilst he offers value to the Minnesota Wild. But equally, I can see that he offers the team some degree of good value to keep, if he can up his game just a small amount.

Charlie sits behind Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker on the depth chart, which is fair enough. He carries a cap hit of $3.2 million and is only on contract until the 2019-20 season. Another perfect case of being a slightly longer-term rental; let’s call it a rental plus one.

He’s reasonably big-bodied and produces well enough to be useful to a contending team should it come to that. You can expect about 40 points out of him across the course of a full season and generally effective play.

Why he seems the most likely candidate for a trade simply put is because of his value.

He isn’t going to do too much damage to a team’s cap hit, is still young enough at 26 to offer a reasonable guarantee not to suddenly tail off stats-wise next season.

That and he generally meets the needs of a lot of teams seeking a bit of depth that isn’t over the hill.

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The higher price to pay over some other depth options may prevent any such deal happening, but I still rate it very much the most probable. Unlike a lot of his counterparts, there’s not a no-trade clause limiting the scope of where he can be moved.

The most interesting part here would be where he gets moved and whether it’s prior to the Trade Deadline or not. I guess that depends how the Minnesota Wild perform this year.

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