The Minnesota Wild seem set to give up on Eric Martinsson, a player they signed ahead of this season in the hopes he’d pan out into an NHL-level defenseman.
These sorts of deals are always fraught with a little risk; the Minnesota Wild signed Eric Martinsson from Vaxjo HC in the Swedish Elite League and thus weren’t guaranteed success. The writing was arguably on the wall as early as training camp, when he didn’t make it through an early round of cuts.
Eric has spent the season thus far with the Minnesota Wild’s minor league affiliate, the Iowa Wild. In the AHL, he’s managed 9 assists in 13 games, suggesting that he is most definitely able to replicate the scoring touch he had in his home land.
With Vaxjo HC, the season before signing with the Wild, Eric Martinsson was a 17-point man across 46 games in a notoriously defensive league. Managing a pace just under 0.5 points-per-game is actually not an awful return in the SHL.
In all likelihood though, despite signing a two-way contract, Eric probably didn’t expect to be riding the bus in Iowa and would’ve hoped that he could crack the Minnesota Wild line-up.
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Maybe he didn’t quite do his research properly though, as the Minnesota defensive talent list doesn’t just stop with the guys in the NHL.
Even in the AHL, players like Louie Belpedio and Carson Soucy are pushing hard to be noticed by Minnesota Wild General Manager, Paul Fenton.
Given that the team didn’t dish huge money out to Eric Martinsson, it’s likely not a big loss and if you think about it philosophically; nothing risked, nothing gained.
There was always the off-chance that Martinsson would arrive this summer and make it straight into the NHL and prove a point. You don’t know without giving him the platform to test that theory out.
If rumours are to be believed though, he seems to be returning to his native Sweden, where he’ll likely sit out the rest of his NHL deal or the Minnesota Wild will simply allow him to sign on with a Swedish team, Frolunda HC being the front-runner got his signature.
And that’ll be the end of his adventure and realistically, the end of his chances at cracking the NHL at least with Minnesota.