The Minnesota Wild’s plans to find a top center could already be in motion and there are several names the team could consider to improve the roster for next season. While Dylan Larkin and Vincent Trocheck may be on the team’s list of targets, the Wild need to throw in some valuable pieces into a deal including former first-round pick Charlie Stramel.
The 21st overall pick in the 2023 draft, Stramel has the draft pedigree of a prospect a team would want in return for a top-line center. But the Michigan State star may also be holding the Wild back as speculated by The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogilano.
“Stramel is the sticking point here,” Mercogilano wrote while analyzing a potential trade package for Trocheck proposed by Wild beat writer Joe Smith that would include Stramel, the Wild’s 2027 first-round pick and defenseman David Spacek. “There’s a lot to like about the 21-year-old. …But many project him more as a 3C than a top-sixer, with the Rangers seeking higher upside.”
The inclusion of Stramel would be a big deal as one of the last trade chips remaining in the organization. But as Mercogilano suggests, he represents the lack of young, high-end talent that could foil their attempt to trade for a top-line center.
Stramel’s low trade value validating Wild fan’s draft-day concerns
After getting off to a slow start to his collegiate career at Wisconsin, Stramel transferred to Michigan State after the 2023-24 season, scoring 28 goals and 71 points in 74 games for the Spartans. This past season was the biggest signal of his improvement as he scored 19 times and recorded 44 points while being named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.
If it weren’t for a broken ankle suffered during the NCAA Tournament, Stramel, who signed his three-year entry deal at the end of last season, may have made his NHL debut in the final stretch of the regular season. But he’s not a player that’s expected to become a top-line center, which is why the Wild are in their current predicament.
The Wild have been searching for a top-line center seemingly since their inception and that search caught up with them at the end of last year. After not pulling the trigger on a trade for Trocheck ahead of the trade deadline, Minnesota went into the playoffs with Ryan Hartman as their top center and Joel Eriksson Ek behind him. But those plans were wrecked when Eriksson Ek was injured in Game 6 of the first round series against the Dallas Stars and was kept out of the second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche.
This made the Wild’s need for a center even more obvious, but there are few options available. Free agent options Charlie Coyle and Evgeni Malkin opted to re-sign instead of testing the open market and the Wild gave Michael McCarron a six-year extension that showed just how shallow the market is. Larkin’s trade request gave the Wild another option while Trocheck looms, but Stramel isn’t the prospect that can push a deal across the finish line.
It’s the confirmation of fears when the Wild made the pick, seeing Minnesota draft for need instead of taking the best player available. Had the Wild selected Gabe Perreault, who was taken two picks later by the Rangers, they may have had a top six asset that could be thrown into the deal or even a player that could already be contributing and eliminating one of Minnesota’s other needs this offseason.
Stramel could still be part of a three-team trade that could acquire Larkin or another disgruntled center if it appears during the summer but that trade would also have included a core piece such as Hartman, Danila Yurov or goaltender Jesper Wallstedt. He could also be part of a pivot to Trocheck, but Mercogilano’s report hints that won’t be enough either.
Instead, Stramel is another reason why the Wild will have to get creative to land a top-line center and hope they can scrounge up enough assets to make a deal happen.
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