Michael Russo of The Athletic: (mailbag) The Minnesota Wild don’t have much salary cap space to work with. If they were to have interest in Ottawa Senators forward Derek Stepan, the Sens would need to retain salary and/or take Victor Rask (two years at $4 million) or Nick Bonino ($4.1 million). Sure that the sides have talked. Stepan’s salary is only $2 million but his cap hit $6.5 million.
Still not sure why Wild fans are so interested in Calgary Flames Sam Bennett. Sure he’s still only 24-years old and can play center, but he hasn’t produced much offensively. Do believe the Wild would at least consider it, but would have to make the cap hits work. The Flames would need to take Rask, Bonino or even Ryan Hartman ($1.9 million).
Hartman, like Bennett, is arbitration-eligible and the Wild could move him this offseason as they may be afraid what the fourth-liner could be awarded.
The Wild need to re-sign Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov and that won’t come cheap.
How Matt Dumba plays this rest of the season will determine whether or not the Wild trade him and his $6 million salary cap hit. The expansion draft will also go a long way into their decision.
The Wild will likely look at going long-term with Kaprizov deal as he’d be a UFA after the 2023-24 season. Kaprizov will have a lot of leverage after this season. Back in 2016 Flames and Johnny Gaudreau were in a similar Group 1 RFA situation – he signed a six-year, $40.5 million deal, a $6.75 million cap hit).
The 24-year old Fiala will also be looking for a big deal. He’d be a UFA in two years, so they’ll be looking at a longer-termed deal. He isn’t off to a great start this season.
As of now, don’t see the Wild looking to re-sign Marcus Johansson. They could look to move him at the trade deadline for an asset.
Quarantine issues will make this trade deadline an interesting one. Hard to say what the deadline will be like. Would think the Wild will look to move pending free agents for assets if they are able to.
