Minnesota Wild: Could Nino Niederreiter be a one-for-one trade piece?

Around the league of late, there’s been some intriguing one-for-one trades. The Minnesota Wild have some players that may benefit from a change of scenery; one of those, Nino Niederreiter could very well be an option for a one-for-one trade.

Ignoring the Dylan Strome deal recently, that the Minnesota Wild may well have missed a trick on, there have been a couple of other trades of late. Ryan Spooner and Ryan Strome swapping teams, as well as Carl Hagelin and Tanner Pearson. Nino Niederreiter represents a chance for the Wild to move on and make a deal of their own.

In Nino, they have a player that had high expectations but arguably isn’t living up to them. He found himself demoted to fourth line duties in their most recent match-up, and whilst this seemed to bring some life, it may well be a little too late.

The Minnesota Wild might actually be wise to properly consider moving on from the Swiss forward.

A 26-year old player with a ceiling of around 50 points is nothing to be sniffed at, but with a cap hit of $5.25 million, it may well be a challenge to find buyers.

Looking around the league for players on comparable contracts for one-for-one swap deals, it’s relatively slim pickings in terms of players that might actually be available.

The obvious option would be Mika Zibanejad, but it seems unlikely that a rebuilding New York Rangers is willing to swap a twenty-five year old center for Nino Niederreiter‘s contract, especially seeing as Mika has 21 points in 25 games this year.

Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks might be a more reasonable bet given the Sharks will likely look to free up some space to sign Erik Karlsson in the summer. A straight-up swap for Nino wouldn’t affect them too negatively, nor the Minnesota Wild.

You could also see the Wild picking up a late-round pick as an additional piece if that trade were to occur, given the slight extra salary they’d take on.