By Luke Sims -
The NHL salary cap jumped by around $5 million from $83.5 million to $88 million for this upcoming season. That gives cap-strapped teams like the Minnesota Wild a little bit more breathing room.
With the new cap jump and only one more year of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts, the Wild will enter a pivotal offseason next year. After missing the playoffs last season, the Wild have some tasks they must complete.
The Wild don’t have many current free agents to address. Jacob Lucchini and Mason Shaw are the only free-agent forwards, and Alex Goligoski, Dakota Mermis, and Declan Chisholm are the only defensemen. Therefore, they will not need to free up much money to re-sign their internal free agents.
Minnesota is always active in the trade market and may be looking to move Filip Gustavsson and Marco Rossi. If the right deal comes along for Marcus Johansson, they could also pull the trigger on that.
The NHL draft is two weeks away, and the Wild have the 13th overall pick. They may move up if the right team agrees to make the switch. Minnesota feels solid that it can get a premier player in their current draft slot.
The work begins at the draft, where the Wild could try and make a move for a top-six winger. With the offseason moving full steam ahead, here is what the Wild should do with this newfound money.
1. Find the right deal for Brock Faber
The Wild have their future cornerstone defender in Faber. The former Los Angeles Kings prospect almost scored 50 points in his rookie season and is a stellar defensive presence.
According to The Athletic, Faber has a market value of $11 million. That’s a lot of money. Only three defenders in the NHL make that much money. Rasmus Dahlin, Drew Doughty, and Erik Karlsson are getting paid $11-plus million.
A better comparable for Faber is Jake Sanderson. The former top-five pick for the Ottawa Senators got the 8x8 extension last summer. He’s also a 21-year-old defender with offensive upside that the team wants to keep around for the long term. Hockey Wilderness broke down how Faber’s impact is more than Sanderson’s.
The Wild have $13,076,922 million coming off the books from the Parise and Suter buyouts, and it looks like they will spend a lot of that on Faber. However, my gut feeling is that Faber’s annual average value does not reach eight digits. Something in the $9 to $9.5 million range would make sense for Faber and the Wild.
In 2021, the Dallas Stars signed Miro Heiskanen to an eight-year deal with an $8.45 million AAV. Heiskanen was 21 when he signed that deal, and he fits the mold of what Faber is a little better: a shutdown defender who chips in on the powerplay and has a decent point total.
Maybe the Maple Grove native will take a bit of a hometown discount, but who knows? Either way, his price will only go up, and the Wild should get that deal done before he becomes unaffordable.
2. Go and get that veteran top-six winger (for the short term)
Minnesota needs to address the spot Johansson took for most of the year. The Wild need more from their second-line left wing, and they would be wise to invest in that spot.
That doesn’t mean they should give David Perron a four-year deal. That would be the worst. The smart move would be to go after a low-risk, high-upside guy like Jakub Vrana or Ondrej Kase. If the Wild can find the right short-term deal for a guy like Riley Smith, that would be just fine.
Acquiring a player like Smith creates competition at that spot and pushes Johansson to perform or lose ice time. A veteran also allows the Wild to push the rookies, like Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov. While Ohgren looked good during his short stint at the end of that season, I wouldn’t expect the Wild just to hand him a top-six role. Bringing in a middle-six winger would provide needed competition.
3. Save the money for the youngsters and make a splash in free agency next offseason
Assuming Marco Rossi stays on the team and builds on his strong rookie season, he’ll need a new deal. So will Khusnutdinov.
Rossi is probably looking at a three- or four-year bridge deal at $4 or $5 four million per season. The Wild will likely stick Khusnutdinov in a bottom-six role, but they will count on him as a crucial penalty killer. His contract won’t be massive, but it will likely be a two- or three-year deal worth $2 or $3 million.
With the Parise and Suter money coming off the books, plus Marc-Andre Fleury, Marcus Johansson, Jon Merrill, and hopefully Jake Middleton, that’s around $20 million before you factor in whatever chaos happens this offseason and the Faber extension.
Still, the Wild would have a good chunk of money to spend in free agency after the Rossi and Khusnutdinov deals. So they should take advantage then. No need to blow it in a season where you’re still handicapped.
Next offseason will be critical for Bill Guerin and Co. They need to extend Faber, find the right deal for a middle-six winger to bring in competition, and save money for some fun stuff next summer.
All stats and data via CapFriendly (R.I.P) unless otherwise noted.
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