The Minnesota Wild are among the top teams in the entire NHL, with this season being arguably their best shot at winning their first Stanley Cup. They already extended Kirill Kaprizov and acquired Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks, but they were still looking to make a splash at the trade deadline. One name consistently linked to the Wild has been New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck.
There were obvious links to the Wild and Trocheck, most notably General Manager Bill Guerin selecting him for United States Olympic team. It felt as though it would be a foregone conclusion that the Wild and Rangers agreed to terms on a trade before Friday's 3:00 p.m. ET deadline.
That all changed on Thursday. The Athletic's Michael Russo and Joe Smith reported that the Wild's hopes of trading for Trocheck "are fading" due in part to the Rangers' asking price.
Wild's chances at trading for Vincent Trocheck 'fading' ahead of deadline
"The price for the New York Rangers center appears to be too rich at this point," write Russo and Smith. "It may just be that they don’t have the assets to get it done for a 32-year-old multi-faceted player with three years left on a reasonable $5.625 million average-annual-value contract."
This isn't good news for Wild fans that wanted the team to add another top six forward before the trade deadline.
The Wild had already given the Rangers their offer for Trocheck, which was believed to be centered around prospect Charlie Stramel and a 2027 first-round pick. The Rangers have been looking to see if they can get a higher offer. Considering that the Wild surrendered a ton to get Hughes earlier this season, they don't have many offers. Not to mention, The Athletic's Vince Mercogliano reported that Guerin has "walled off" Danila Yurov from a trade package for Trocheck.
As for where the Wild can turn next, there unfortunately aren't many centers that are attainable at the trade deadline. Robert Thomas is a legit option being floated at the trade deadline, but the St. Louis Blues have a high asking price for him. Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks is a lackluster and expensive option. The Wild have been linked to Ryan O'Reilly, but it's uknown if he'd accept a trade off the Nashville Predators. Nazem Kadri has three years left on his contract worth $7 million per season. So, the Wild are kind of stuck in terms of landing a top six forward.
In what felt like a sure thing, the Wild are now coming to the realization that they cannot meet the Rangers' demands for Trocheck with less than 24 hours left until the trade deadline.