The Minnesota Wild made some impact trades last season, but one of the most surprising was the one that acquired Michael McCarron from the Nashville Predators. Known for embellishing a slash from Mats Zuccarello last December, McCarron became a key figure in the Wild’s push to the playoffs with three goals and five points in 20 regular season games and two goals and four points in 11 playoff games.
With a strong finish to the year, The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith reported on Friday that “The Wild badly want McCarron back, and he wants to come back.” But the Wild also have to avoid the temptation of doing so at any cost necessary as Minnesota must reserve some of its money to fix the bigger holes on their roster.
Wild can’t pay too much to bring Michael McCarron back in free agency
McCarron’s finish to the year warrants a sizable contract and the 31-year-old even mentioned that he had never made more than $900,000 in a season during his exit interview with the media. While a model by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn projects a market value of $1.1 million, AFP Analytics and Evolving-Hockey both project he could fetch a two-year deal with an annual average value (AAV) of $2 million.
Even if those projections seem excessive, $2 million might be a palatable price for the Wild to pay. But it could go even higher due to a weak free agent class and a league-wide desire to upgrade at the center position. Russo and Smith even suggested the price could climb to as high as $4 or $5 million and Elliotte Friedman suggested the Vancouver Canucks, who have a projected $21.9 million in cap space per Puckpedia, as a team with potential interest on a recent episode of his 32 Thoughts podcast.
While McCarron filled several needs for the Wild down the stretch, helping on the penalty kill and winning 54.5% of his faceoffs during the playoffs, there has to be a point where general manager Bill Guerin throws in the towel on any hopes to bring him back.
The Wild have already overpaid to keep Marcus Foligno ($4 million per Puckpedia) and Yakov Trenin ($3.5 million) in the bottom six and while Ryan Hartman has frequently served as a top-line center, he’s better suited to be on the third line, albeit at the AAV of $4 million.
Guerin also has several other needs that will require money this offseason. The search for a No. 1 center remains a hot topic and will likely require some sort of extension when (or if) that player arrives in Minnesota. The Wild also needs to renovate its blue line behind Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber and they could still use some scoring punch at the top of their lineup, although re-signing Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson and Vladimir Tarasenko are all options.
It’s possible McCarron could see the situation he’s in and sign with the Wild at a team-friendly rate. But if he hits the open market and starts seeing dollar signs, Minnesota may have to move on and use some of that money in a more beneficial way.
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