The Minnesota Wild are entering a big offseason and their best chance of making a splash could come in the trade market. The Wild are expected to be one of the biggest players in this year’s market and it’s a fluid situation where other trades around the NHL could impact their plans to shake up the roster and help their team take a step forward in 2026.
That first ripple came on Tuesday when the Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs traded goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit to the Philadelphia Flyers. The deal, which also sent goalie Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae and a third-round pick in the 2026 draft back to Toronto doesn’t seem like it would affect the Wild at first glance. But a deeper look could bring Minnesota some benefits and make general manager Bill Guerin one of the biggest winners of Tuesday’s deal.
Maple Leafs could help Wild land the top line center they want this summer
Tuesday’s trade marked the first big move by new general manager John Chayka. Chayka, who resigned from his previous GM job with the Arizona Coyotes by leaving the team right before the 2020 COVID-19 “bubble” playoffs, has been looking to shake up the Maple Leafs this summer and trading their starting goaltender would do the trick.
Woll was coming off a tough year in Toronto, going 15-16-7 with a 3.34 goals against average and an .898 save percentage. But as The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel noted, he was the best goalie they had in the present, leaving them to take long-term bets on Anthony Stolarz, Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov to be low-cost solutions.
“Woll was far from perfect. He got hurt a lot and never felt like the most reliable goaltender because of it,” Siegel wrote. “...Yet, Woll was the most proven goaltender the Leafs had, with growth potential still in the cards. …In trading him, Chayka is betting that either Hildeby or Akhtyamov can deliver a similar level of performance for less. He might be proven right in the long term, but Woll looks clearly like the better bet in the short term.”
With those words, the spider sense of Wild fans should be tingling. Minnesota has two starting-caliber goaltenders at the moment and when another team needs one, like the Maple Leafs currently do, it should summon Guerin like the bat signal summons Bruce Wayne. A straight deal for Filip Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt might not be what Guerin is looking for, but it could help him get what he wants.
The Wild have been heavily connected to Dylan Larkin in recent weeks, but they lack the high-end assets that the Detroit Red Wings would want back in a trade. Because of this, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun theorized that the best chance of Larkin coming to Minnesota would be a three-team deal and Toronto may have the assets to fill it out.
If the Maple Leafs covet either Wild goaltender, they could toss in a top asset such as winger Easton Cowan or move a player that has been blocking his path to the NHL including Nick Robertson. Morgan Reilly or Ben Danford could also be names that are thrown into a trade and it could sweeten whatever package the Wild are offering with Danila Yurov, Charlie Stramel and either goaltender as the headliner.
In addition, the Maple Leafs do not have a first-round pick in the 2027 or 2028 draft, which could make either of the Wild’s firsts become appealing to Toronto.
A hang up here is that the Red Wings and Maple Leafs are both Atlantic Division rivals. But it wouldn’t hurt for the Wild to keep Chayka on speed dial for a different target such as Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers.
If anything, the Maple Leafs could use a goaltender and the Wild might have one available. After Tuesday’s deal, Chayka has shown he’s ready to deal and it could be the door the Wild have been looking for to acquire a top-line center.
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