On the Minnesota Wild …
Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: The Wild’s expansion situation is well known and rumors have surrounded the team. If a team acquired someone from the Wild, they’d also have to have the room to protect him.
“We’ve talked to other teams,” said Brent Flahr, the Wild’s senior vice president of hockey operations, on Wednesday. “If we want to move players, we can certainly move players, but at the same time, we’re hoping maybe we can get something done with Vegas. We’d obviously have to pay a price of some kind , but the reality is we’re going to lose a player . We have to figure out what’s best for us, not only next year, but moving forward.”
Flahr added he thinks it’s “doubtful” they make a big splash before the expansion rosters are announced
“People have kicked tires and thrown names out there, which are interesting,” Flahr said. “But they’re not really sure what they’re doing either. It’s a lot of moving parts.”
Teams are likely calling on Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin, thinking the Wild don’t want to lose one for nothing.
The Wild could ask Jason Pominville if he’d waive his no-movement clause.
Teams have called the Wild about Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter.
It’s thought that Wild GM Chuck Fletcher has spoken with Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill about the No. 3 pick, who is looking to improve their blueline.
The Wild plan on meeting with the agent of RFA Mikael Granlund at the draft. Granlund’s agent Todd Diamond.
“We’ve had, I wouldn’t even call it exploratory talks, but we touched base that we’d get things going in the near future. When they’re ready to get going, we’re ready to get going.”
Niederreiter’s name has been in the rumor mill and there have been no talks between the two sides.