Minnesota Wild: Dmitrij Jaskin Available And Worth A Call?

The Minnesota Wild roster is full of ageing forwards; if they are given opportunities to get a little younger without losing quality, they absolutely should. Dmitrij Jaskin may meet that bill.

In the most recent 31 Thoughts column, Elliotte Friedman had this to say, something that I think should pique the interest of the Minnesota Wild:

"Player in danger of being squeezed out: Dmitrij Jaskin, St. Louis. Lots of talented new blood there – Elliotte Friedman (sportsnet.ca)"

Would there be interest from the Minnesota Wild and more reasonably; would the St. Louis Blues even consider trading him to a team within the same division. They wouldn’t really want to make a rival better, after all.

In Dmitirij Jaskin, the Minnesota Wild could acquire a player that has a pretty decent 200-foot game. Better still, they could acquire a guy the right side of thirty, Jaskin being a youthful twenty-five years old!

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Whilst he’s not about to play top-six minutes, he can be relied upon to contribute about 20 points a season on the third or fourth line, whilst maintaining a positive 52.66% Corsi, meaning he’s able to retain possession – a key to strong defensive play. All of that whilst starting almost 60% of the time in the defensive zone.

Those statistics were generated playing most often with a combination of Scottie Upshall, Kyle Brodziak, Vladimir Sobotka and Tage Thompson; all good players but none enough to cause any sort of false stats inflation.

Jaskin plays a big hitting game, landing 207 last campaign, and a big blocking game, credited with 46 last year. All of this whilst seldom taking a penalty.

That sort of heaviness to his game could be a huge benefit to the Minnesota Wild, but is also exactly why I doubt he’d be traded here.

Whilst I do see Freidman’s point that he could be excess to requirements, unfortunately I think that he won’t be Minnesota-bound, regardless of the fact he could take a job from an older player on the fourth line and likely do it better!

If the new General Manager could pull a deal off here, I think it’d be a steal for the Minnesota Wild. A win-win of taking a younger guy with a small cap hit and in turn replacing an older guy. Maybe they could clear out the defensive log-jam in doing so too?

Statistics courtesy of Dobber Sports.