- Craig Custance of ESPN: Wild offseason priorities.1. Sign Devan Dubnyk immediately – contract talks between the Wild and Dubnyk’s camp were put on hold during the season, but both sides what to do deal. Shouldn’t be that difficult to get it done.
2. Buyout Niklas Backstrom – he has a year left on his contract. Wild would go with Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper.
3. Find a way to add some offense – they tried last summer with Thomas Vanek. They hope to get some more offense from their young guys, but if GM Chuck Fletcher can add some from outside the organization, it would be even better.
- Chad Graff of the Pioneer Press: GM Chuck Fletcher’s to-do list. Re-sign Devan Dubnyk. If all goes to plan, Kuemper will backup Dubnyk. Need to find a way to keep up with the Blackhawks. They need to find a goal scorer. The Wild could look at trading Jared Spurgeon and redoing their third pairing. Nate Prosser and Jordan Leopold are UFAs and Christian Folin is a RFA. Mikael Granlund is a RFA and was waiting for the season to end before starting contract talks. He’ll have figure out if he wants a bridge deal or a long-term deal.
- Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: Offseaon to-do list:1. Negotiations with Dubnyk will start soon. GM Fletcher will want to get it done soon.
2. Trading block – if the Wild can’t trade Niklas Backstrom, they are expected to buy him out.
3. Re-sign or not – list of UFAs include Chris Stewart, Kyle Brodziak, Jordan Leopold, Nate Prosser, Sean Bergenheim and Ryan Carter. Keith Ballard and Josh Harding are expected to retire. The Wild could look re-sign Brodziak if they can get him on a short-term, reasonable contract. They might look to bring back Leopod – he shouldn’t cost much and was a good mentor to Matt Dumba.
4. Free Agency and trades – RFAs inlcude Mikael Granlund, Erik Haula and Christian Frolin. If they want to trade for a goal scorer, they have to give up assets. Young assets include Tyler Graovac, Gustav Olofsson, Kurtis Gabriel, Alex Tuch, Adam Gilmour and Loui Belpedio. Off of their roster, they could dangle Grunlund, Haula and Spurgeon.