Chase Priskie’s time in the Minnesota Wild organization was brief and unspectacular. The 29-year-old was acquired on the second day of the draft in a deal with the Washington Capitals that sent Declan Chisholm and the 180th pick eastward for Priskie and the 123rd pick, which Minnesota used to draft Carter Klippenstein. Priskie was an unrestricted free agent, and after not receiving a suitable offer in the NHL has decided to sign with Sibir Novosibirsk in the KHL.
It was always a bit unlikely that the Wild were going to sign Priskie, but it is somewhat surprising that he wasn’t able to land at least a two-contract with a NHL team. The right-shot defenseman has hit 30 points in three of the last four AHL seasons, and won a Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears in 2023-24.
While he’s only seen action in four NHL games (with the Panthers in 2021-22) the Florida native could have been solid organizational depth for a team like the Wild. Minnesota is going to have a lot of youth on their blueline at the beginning of the season and could use a solid veteran holding things down in the AHL with Iowa.
Priskie joins the well-traveled Louis Domingue in Siberia. The 33-year-old netminder signed with Novosibirisk on Thursday after a NHL career that had him play games with seven different franchises. The team finished in seventh place last season in the Eastern Conference of the KHL and hopes that the influx of NHL talent will help them move up in the standings.
While Priskie got away from the Wild (not that they had any intention of signing him) Washington did lock up Chisholm to a two-year deal with a $1.6 million average annual value. He had joined the Wild in January of 2024 after Minnesota claimed him off of waivers from the Jets. The 25-year-old appeared in 95 games with the Wild over two seasons, scoring 5 goals and adding 15 assists while averaging 16:57 minutes of ice time.
With the aforementioned youth on the blueline, trading the defenseman in order to move up in the draft was an interesting move as he had the perfect amount of experience to step in should one of the young players falter. Even though he was a restricted free agent, as his contract with Washington shows, it wasn’t going to cut too deeply into Minnesota’s cap space to sign him.