The Minnesota Wild should make a real crack at acquiring William Nylander right now.
We all know that the Minnesota Wild have one of the oldest squads in the league. As such, they need to find ways of getting younger and adding a near-elite young name like William Nylander would be incredibly wise.
Now, the Minnesota Wild General Manager, Paul Fenton has experience in making big moves, having spent so much time with the Nashville Predators organisation; one that has gone crazy in trade terms what with the deals that saw P.K. Subban and Ryan Johansen arrive there.
Per a recent SportsNet article, the likely chips to send to the Toronto Maple Leafs would be at least one of Matt Dumba, Jared Spurgeon or Jonas Brodin. If you could pull off some sort of deal that sees Jared Spurgeon head to Toronto, fulfilling their need for a right-side defenseman, you’d be laughing.
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That deal would have to involve at least an additional prospect or draft pick and of course, the Minnesota Wild would want contractual assurances from the Nylander camp.
In his time with the Maple Leafs, William Nylander has typically been deployed as a winger, but has experience in his home country and even on occasion in the NHL as a center.
For the Minnesota Wild, that would be key. When you think about the expiring deal of Eric Staal this year and that of Mikko Koivu the year after, there will be a dearth of center depth in the line-up. If you can acquire the Swede and sell him on playing center, you’re laughing.
Those two contracts coming off the books, plus a trade of Jared Spurgeon mean that, if he can develop into a top-level center, you may actually end up paying below the going rate. He seems to want between $7 million and $8 million – that’s affordable should you ditch Koivu, Staal and trade Spurgeon.
Even if you wanted to renew Eric Staal next year, though maybe it’s worth moving on; if you can get him to agree to take the same money or a little less, you’d still be able to afford Nylander.
The biggest loss here would be Jared Spurgeon; whilst there is talented defensive depth in the Wild organisation, you wouldn’t get the same level of performance there.
Is that offset by a 22 year-old potential star?
Possibly.
Now it might just as well not pay off for the Minnesota Wild, but nothing risked, nothing gained. It could be the kick-start to a rebuild that never has to drop to Draft Lottery level.
Nothing is lost by reaching out to the Maple Leafs’ General Manager, Kyle Dubas. Why not throw the idea out there?