The Minnesota Wild’s Offseason Should Look Like This

After a quiet 2019-2020 trade deadline, is Wild GM Bill Guerin gearing up for a monster offseason? Here is a complete guide to a massive 2020 offseason.

GM Bill Guerin was relatively quiet during the trade deadline. The trade of Jason Zucker hinted at a possible rebuild, but no trades followed. Zach Parise was rumored to be sent packing to Long Island after waiving his no-trade clause, but nothing happened. So after a trade deadline day that Wild fans thought could see Eric Staal, Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin, and/or even captain Mikko Koivu on the move yet never got traded, what do they need to expect? The real question is how big of an offseason will the Wild have?

Here is a complete guide for the Minnesota Wild’s offseason in four parts

2020 NHL Draft

This year’s NHL draft may be considered as the deepest draft since the 2015 NHL draft. Alexis Lafreniere is this year’s Connor McDavid (in terms of likely being the #1 pick), Mikko Rantanen to Lucas Raymond, and Thomas Chabot to Jamie Drysdale, we can put two and two together and say this is and will be a very strong draft. If the Penguins make it past the qualifying round, the Minnesota Wild will get their 2020 1st round selection, and currently have their 1st round pick as well. Pretty exciting right? Look out for articles on Who the Wild should select in the future.

So let’s move on to some draft-day trades.

Possible Draft Day Trade #1

Connor Dewar has been buried in a very solid depth team of the Iowa Wild, so we haven’t seen his full potential. He could go to Rochester and provide some solid play on the bottom 6 for the Americans (Buffalo Sabres Affiliate).

The 2021 3rd round pick along with Dewar sweetens the pot a bit to acquire the Sabres 2nd round pick, which will be a lot earlier than the Wild’s. From this trade, the Wild are going from most likely a 50th overall pick to a 40th. In this draft that is huge and essentially getting a late first-round pick.

Possible Draft Day Trade #2

Florida is going to have a tough offseason. With having to pay goalie Sergei Bobrovsky $10 million each year for 6 more years,  (D) MacKenzie Weegar likely getting a payday, and the contracts of (C) Erik Haula, (RW) Evgenii Dadonov, and (LW/RW) Mike Hoffman all expiring, Panthers GM Dale Tallon simply will not be able to pay all of them. Possibly losing 3 players out of your top 6 is a little alarming.

The Panthers would still want to compete right now though, with star captain Aleksander Barkov and all-star winger Jonathan Huberdeau still in their primes, and adding Eric Staal to the Panthers team will add some veteran leadership and solid play from the second line. GM Dale Tallon would be okay with losing his 2nd and 3rd round picks if it meant acquiring a solid second-line center to help his team contend.

For the Wild’s side of things, Eric Staal did regress a bit this season. Having one year left on his deal, he could leave to free agency after next season, so getting 2 picks in the deep 2020 draft is a huge addition for the Wild and building for the future. The Wild also don’t have a 3rd round pick this year, so getting Florida’s would help a lot. Also, with the addition of a young centerman like Lucas Wallmark, it would help the Wild down the stretch. Wallmark recorded 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points in 67 games between the Panthers and Hurricanes and has the potential to be a 20 goal guy. His versatility as a forward is also a huge addition.