On the Minnesota Wild …
Chad Graff of the Pioneer Press: (from earlier this week) Deciding on a new head coach will be the Wild’s top priority.
The only players that likely won’t be shopped are Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Mikko Koivu, Devan Dubnyk, Charlie Coyle and Jared Spurgeon.
The Wild may like to trade Jason Pominville, but he has three years left at a $5.6 million cap hit.
Thomas Vanek is a buyout candidate. It would save them $5 million in cap space next year, $4 million in 2017-18.
Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund might get the Wild an acceptable return.
Teams will be interested in Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba. The Wild might consider trading one to improve up the middle.
Backup goalie, pending RFA Darcy Kuemper will be in trade talks.
On the Edmonton Oilers …
Matt Larkin of The Hockey News: Everyone knows the Oilers need to improve their blueline. If they win the draft lottery, they could consider trading the pick for a top defenseman. There have been suggestions they could offer the pick to the Coyotes for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but that doesn’t make a lot sense for the Coyotes.
If the Oilers did win the lottery, they could keep the pick, draft Auston Matthews and then look to trade Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Under that scenario, Larkin would call the Blues to see about a Nugent-Hopkins for Kevin Shattenkirk trade. The Blues may not be re-signing David Backes, creating a hole down the middle.
Going big, the Oilers could look at Canadiens P.K. Subban. Ryan McDonagh could be another option if he’s made available. Both Subban (no-trade) and McDonagh (no-movement) kick in on July 1st.