Wild make their first trade of the offseason, but it's not for Dylan Larkin

After a mostly quiet start to free agency, the Minnesota Wild started revving their engines with on the trade market. It was the much anticipated and sought after deal for Dylan Larkin, rather the Wild flipped Jake Middleton to Calgary for one of the Flames’ top trade chips: Blake Coleman.

Coleman isn’t going to fill the need Minnesota has for a top-line center, but his offense will help nicely in a middle-six role. He’s a winger by trade but has experience at center which will at least give the Wild some depth where they need it. 

Again, this isn’t an either-or situation that takes the Wild out of the running for Larkin, but it is notable that they used some future assets to make the deal with Calgary happen. In addition to Middleton, the Wild are sending a 2027 third-round pick, a 2028 fourth-round pick, and a 2029 second-round pick to the Flames. In addition to Coleman, Calgary is sending veteran defenseman Olli Maatta to Minnesota. 

The good news is that the Wild convinced Calgary to retain half of Coleman's salary, which means Minnesota is only on the hook for $2.45 million on a deal that runs through 2027. On the flipside, the Wild depleted more of their draft capital reserve which could make pulling off another trade more difficult than it already was.

What does Blake Coleman bring to the Minnesota Wild?

As we said above, offense is the big addition here. Minnesota dipped into its defensive depth to add a little more mid-tier firepower. That sounds more negative than it should be recieved about Coleman, who scored 20 goals last season in 69 games while racking up 35 points. That's production the Wild can use, especially after we saw spurts against Dallas and Colorado where the offense went ice cold.

Coleman doesn't instantly fix all of Minnesota's problems, but he's a former Stanely Cup winner who brings that important experience with him to a locker room that got the tastiest bite it's had in decades of a deep playoff run.

Don't sleep on Maatta, either. Losing Middleton stinks but Maatta at least helps replenish some of that depth. He's over a decade removed from being a first-round pick and brings 804 games worth of veteran experience to Minnesota, something a top-heavy defensive group can benefit from.

While it's not exactly Quinn Hughes unlocking the best in Brock Faber, it's one of those things where the depth Maatta provides could show up in important moments.

What does the Blake Coleman-Jake Middleton trade mean for the Wild landing Dylan Larkin?

This is the big question everyone has after the Wild pulled the trigger on a trade that wasn't the splashy one we've been waiting for. It was revealed that the Red Wings are indeed playing hardball with the Wild, requesting Matt Boldy as the first piece of a trade package for Larkin -- something that is an absolute non-starter on Minnesota's end.

Boldy is one of the best young players in the league and is on one of the best team-friendly contracts. Simply put, he's not going anywhere, so it's a matter of whether the Red Wings are starting with pie-in-the-sky requests before tempering expectations, or they're letting the Wild know how unserious they are about doing business with them.

If there's business to be done, the Wild are going to need to further scrape the bottom of their war chest to make it happen. After the Coleman trade, Minnesota doesn't have a second round pick for the rest of the decade which complicates things if only slightly.

Minnesota still has all of its first-round picks through 2030 as well as three third-round picks after 2027. It's those assets plus guys like Jesper Wallstedt and Charlie Strammel who the Wild have left in terms of top assets to try and put together an attractive trade package.

The ship also hasn't sailed on Vincent Trocheck. It sounds like Toronto might be where he ends up, but the Wild have been circled as a potential destination and he could be a backup plan if nothing ends up coming together for Larkin.

Don't conflate the Coleman trade as something that takes Minnesota our of the running for Larkin, though. Middleton was never going to be part of that deal, nor was anything in the package outside of that 2029 second-rounder. It's still an uphill battle to get that traded done, but the Wild are biding their time by making other ones that help improve the team.

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