With the Minnesota Wild approaching the start of free agency, there appears to be little clarity on the future of Mats Zuccarello. Many believed that negotiating a new contract would be easy as he enters his age-39 campaign, but what they didn’t expect was things to get contentious as the Wild hammer out their offseason plans.
Michael Russo of The Athletic reported over the weekend that “it sure feels like the Wild have decided to move on from Zuccarello.” In return, it also feels like Zuccarello has also decided to move on after he’s been “put on the backburner” as the Wild make an aggressive bid to acquire Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin in a trade.
“Zuccarello is pretty ticked about how things have gone,” Russo wrote. “So even if the Wild circled back, there’s a very good bet he’d test free agency with so many teams in need of a point-producing winger like him, even though he’ll be 39 by the time next season begins. …When Zuccarello said in the playoffs that he wanted to play one or two more years, and when Guerin told The Athletic that the Wild “always” have interest in the veteran winger, the implication seemed to be that one or two phone calls would get this deal done. Still, the Wild had many balls in the air as they explored trades (like for Larkin). They had to put Zuccarello on the back burner with cap space at a premium.”
In addition, a joint report by Russo and his colleague Joe Smith suggested there may be more to the decision to let Zuccarello walk including his performance during last year’s playoffs and the effect he has on Kirill Kaprizov.
“Fair or not, the Wild were livid about how they played in Game 4 of their second-round series against Colorado after such a dominant Game 3,” Russo and Smith wrote. “There’s a sense that Kaprizov depends too much on Zuccarello and that Zuccarello drags Kaprizov into the east-west game that’s the opposite of how the Wild want to play.”
The Wild may be shoving Mats Zuccarello out the door ahead of free agency
Seeing Zuccarello become the scapegoat of the Wild’s playoff run wasn’t something many had on their bingo card. Zuccarello scored 15 goals and recorded 54 points in 59 games last season and scored twice with nine points in eight games during the Wild’s playoff run. On a team that has already lost Marcus Johansson and could lose Vladimir Tarasenko in free agency, Zuccarello figured to be a priority in the offseason plans, but the Wild may have several reasons why that hasn’t happened.
The biggest elephant in the room is the pursuit of Larkin. While the Wild have $9.4 million in projected cap space according to Puckpedia, Larkin’s $8.7 million cap hit would eat up most of that space with more holes to fill. When Russo talks about the “balls in place” part of that is determining whether the Wild will have to move key players to create the cap space for a Larkin trade and any additional moves that need to be made, which makes total sense to push Zuccarello down the to-do list.
Zuccarello’s friendship with Kaprizov has also been well documented, but it may have played a role in the latter’s disappearing act during the series with the Avalanche. After scoring and recording a pair of assists in a Game 3 victory, Kaprizov had just one shot on goal in the final two games combined including a shotless effort in Minnesota’s Game 5 collapse. Even if Kaprizov doesn’t agree with the scoring from that game, it felt like he wasn’t as aggressive as he should have been and with a $17 million cap hit that begins this season, it may be time to cut the cord.
As Russo noted, it may not be fair to blame Zuccarello for Kaprizov’s struggles in the final two games. But good teams make ruthless decisions like this all the time. If anything, keeping Zuccarello around would feed the “country club” narrative the Wild have fought off for years and perhaps send a signal that they’re going for it.
If they don’t get Larkin, this has potential to backfire. But for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, Zuccarello may be a casualty that helps the Wild get where they want to go.
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