Three offseason moves the Minnesota Wild should consider making

When Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin pulled the trigger on divorcing from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter contracts this past summer, he unofficially announced the Wild were heading towards a rebuild.

Why a rebuild?

Minnesota takes a cap hit of $12+ million in 2022, and $15 million for both the ’23 and ’24 seasons . The decision to buy out Parise was an easy one considering his declining performance (averaged only 13:57 minutes per game), and the behind the scenes rift with Wild management (there is no secret that Parise had worn out his welcome).

As a fan, this hurts, but with any divorce, it’s better to think with your head and not your heart. That is what Guerin did.

The Suter buyout did not make as much sense.

From an on ice perspective Suter recorded 19 points (3-16=19) in 56 regular-season games, averaged 22:11 of ice time per game, and finished with a +9 plus/minus rating. Suter was not signed to lead the league in scoring. He was signed to lead the league in ice time and shut down the opposing team’s best lines.

Why would you cut ties with a solid defenseman and essentially still be on the books for his salary and have to find and pay his replacement? Suter was deemed “uncoachable”. Guerin had enough and decided to say “take whatever you want, we are getting divorced”.

He chose a fresh start and salary cap hell over Suter’s presence in the locker room and having the ability to re-sign the upcoming free agents. With that we say goodbye to the other half of the greatest July 4th in Minnesota sports history. Just like that, both of the saviors were gone, and a new leadership group in the locker room was appointed.

The Wild actually did save money this season, and were subsequently able to keep the franchise’s new face, Kirill Kaprizov (5 year- $45 million), however, the State of Hockey is now facing a state of emergency.

Strapped with the cap hits from Parise and Suter, the Wild are in real trouble next season.

Can the unproven talent that has looked serviceable thus far (Connor Dewar, Brandon Duhaime, and budding super star Matthew Boldy), carry the team moving forward? Or do the Wild need to make more roster moves in order to keep the big ticket names that otherwise might not be around past this season?

Time will tell.

The Wild have roughly $10.3 million in cap space next season for re-signing current stars Kevin Fiala and Kaapo Kahkonen, and the roster upgrades needed.

No team in NHL history has won a Stanley Cup without a No. 1 center and strong goaltending. The Wild possess one of the two and moving forward are going to need to get creative if they are going to seriously take a run at bringing a Stanley Cup parade down West Kellogg Boulevard.

Here are three unpopular roster moves that could help the Wild escape salary cap hell, compete for the Cup, and avoid wasting the best years of Kaprizov’s career.

Trade Cam Talbot

Cam Talbot was an All-Star for the first time in his career, at age 34. He actually played better than the other All-Star goalies during the game (see his two incredible saves on Dylan Larkin and Rasmus Dahlin).

During his tenure with the Wild, Talbot has proven remarkably efficient. Aside from his terrible performance in the 2022 Winter Classic, Talbot has been reliable and consistent. Talbot is under contract for one more season (signed 3 years- $11 million) and the team would save $3.6 million by trading him after the season.

During his time with the Wild, Talbot has played in 60 games, has gone 37-16-6 with 3 shutouts, and 2.71 GAA and .917 save percentage.

Kaapo Kahkonen is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season and will command a significant pay increase from his $750,000 salary this season. The former AHL goalie of the year has played well in extended appearances the past two seasons and has gone 16-8 in 2021 and 10-3-2 in 2022 while filling in for Talbot.

Kahkonen would fill the void in net from a trade, and could be pushed for playing time from former second round pick Hunter Jones. Worse case scenario, Kahkonen could keep the crease occupied until 2021 first round pick Jesper Wallstedt is NHL ready.

Trade Jared Spurgeon

I know. I know. They just signed Jared Spurgeon to his massive contract (7 years- $53 million) and he is the current captain of the Wild, so hear me out.

Spurgeon has only made it through an entire season healthy one time in his entire career. Durability is a massive issue. The position the Wild are currently in, a player making $7.5 million each season, should be on the ice more than he is.

Like Dumba, Spurgeon has a full no-trade clause in his contract and at 32 years old, with his history of injuries, the Wild would most likely need to retain a portion of his salary in order to move him.

In doing so, Guerin would be paying close to $10 million dollars per season to two defensemen not on the roster. That is why we are in this position in the first place, so that is not an option.

A team like the Arizona Coyotes who have a history of eating the back part of lousy contracts to reach the salary floor, would probably not be an option as any trade would require Spurgeon’s approval.

Finding a trade partner could be tricky and would most likely require swapping for another player with a bad contract.

So what would be the point?

Whatever the Minnesota Wild could get in return for Spurgeon would most likely not be an option for replacing his on-ice impact and leadership.

The team would most likely need to replace his ice-time with cheaper free agents (they did it this year with Jon Merrill and Dimitry Kulikov). Going for another Alex Gologoski at $5 million per season would not be a very smart move as this cap space is needed elsewhere.

None of these moves are popular moves but all make sense if the Minnesota Wild are going to move forward with their new identity and make a real run at the Stanley Cup.

The team’s strength has changed from a team that was defense first, built from the net out. The Wild now are a team that outscores any team with their top three lines. Move forward and go with the new plan.

The Minnesota Wild have made it clear that keeping Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jordan Greenway together was a top priority. The team has Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman, and Mats Zuccarello together for next season (though they desperately need a number one center).

It makes too much sense to keep Kevin Fiala and Boldy playing together. They have been sensational the past 11 games. This team can compete with any team in the league because of these three balanced lines.

Do not break them up. Add to them, but not via addition by subtraction.

The Wild are in a difficult position and I do not envy Guerin’s offseason, but he can avoid a messy rebuild and circumvent a salary cap disaster by being bold and making these difficult decisions.