By Tony Abbott -
The Minnesota Wild are coming up on another offseason, and you know what that means:
It's time for Marco Rossi trade rumor corner.
The Wild's young center has been in the rumor mill for each of the past two offseasons, and it appears his 22 goals and 54 points in 70 games (so far) may not save him for a third round of rumors.
After a trade deadline reprieve, the speculation machine started firing up again on Thursday's "Worst Seats in the House" Podcast with Michael Russo.
Quoting Russo:
Somebody asked [The Athletic colleague] Joe Smith on his podcast that he believes it's 70% [likely] that Marco Rossi is traded this summer. A person asked if I agreed with that, and I would actually say it's higher. I genuinely think that, reading the tea leaves, I think that they're gonna move him this summer...
They are so far apart on what Rossi's camp his value is versus the Wild, it's not even funny. They're in different universes right now.
Here we go again.
There's the possibility that Rossi is on the Matt Dumba track, always available for a perfect return that will never arrive, presenting no one reason to worry Rossi could be on the move. However, Rossi is a restricted free agent this offseason, which means he's in line for a big raise that the Wild simply don't want to pay, perhaps even via offer sheet. It's a situation that at least has the potential to force the Wild's hand.
Whether any trade is a good idea depends on the return, and we don't know what that might constitute. However, if Minnesota is looking for a center-for-center trade, it will be tough to upgrade from Rossi. As of Sunday, his Standings Points Above Replacement has been 4.1, which leads the Wild and puts him in the top-15 league-wide among regular centers.
Let's just say that Jack Eichel, Leon Draisaitl, or Wyatt Johnston ain't walking through that door. That means the Wild can either try buying low on a formerly elite center like Elias Pettersson or make a lateral move, at best, in a center swap. The former may be a long shot, and the latter doesn't make much sense.
That's fairly concerning because if a center-for-center swap isn't possible, then trading Rossi will put them, by definition, down a center. If that happens, the Wild will have become alarmingly cavalier about giving away talent down the middle.
This happened, to a lesser extent, at the trade deadline when Minnesota shipped out Marat Khusnutdinov in a trade for winger Justin Brazeau.
Khusnutdinov had few NHL accomplishments. Still, flipping a 22-year-old, speedy center for a slow, 28-year-old fourth-line winger was an odd choice, to say the least. Especially given how Rossi's recent injury scare showed how close the Wild's center depth is to running on fumes. Maybe Khusnutdinov wouldn't have helped with that, but he at least offers more upside than the Wild's current options.
You don't have to look far to see how other teams value -- and honestly, hoard -- centers. The Colorado Avalanche traded premium draft capital to land Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle at the trade deadline. The Dallas Stars go six-deep with Johnston, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn, Maverik Bourque, and Sam Steel. Heck, they're throwing Mikael Granlund at the pivot before resorting to a Brendan Gaunce-type.
Honestly, even with a healthy Rossi and Eriksson Ek, the Wild's center room will have difficulty keeping up with the sheer depth of the Western Conference's top teams. So what happens if they remove Rossi from the equation?
Outside of a center-for-center deal, John Tavares is the only high-end free-agent center. Tavares is having a productive season (29 goals, 60 points in 62 games), but he'll also turn 35 before next season starts. It's also worth wondering whether a player who's played in New York and Toronto will see Minnesota as a desirable landing spot when the franchise has historically struggled to attract free agents without local ties.
If the Wild strike out on an established center, then the franchise's eggs all go into the Danila Yurov basket. Yurov is a top prospect, but the Wild just saw a 21-year-old prospect in Khusnutdinov struggle to transition to the NHL after putting up solid numbers in the KHL. Yurov has advantages Khusnutdinov doesn't: he's bigger and has a better shot than Khusnutdinov. Regardless, pinning their hopes on a young player immediately adjusting to a bigger, faster league halfway across the world seems dubious.
There's also a difference between shifting from wing to center in the KHL and doing so in the NHL. There's reason to think that Yurov can make the transition -- he has the size, skating, and skill to stick at the position. Still, even lifelong centers are sometimes better suited for the wing. Without Rossi, Minnesota could easily be left without a Plan B if Yurov can't stick down the middle.
And even if Yurov is an NHL-caliber center and does make a seamless transition to the position... since when is it bad to go three-deep at center? It's almost becoming a requirement to win now. The Cup Champion Florida Panthers are another team with more centers than spots for centers. The runner-up Edmonton Oilers have two of the best five centers of the league, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is behind them on the depth chart. Dallas made the Conference Finals last season, and we've already talked about their situation.
Up to this point, Russo and Smith's belief that the Wild will trade Rossi has come up bust, but it's never wise to dismiss someone as plugged-in as Russo. It feels like there's got to be fire to accompany this much smoke. Still, unless the Wild can pull off something huge, Wild fans should hope this round of Rossi rumors don't pan out. Centers are gold in the NHL, and the Wild have two high-end, Under-30 centers on their roster, with the chance to get a third in Yurov. Trading Rossi (likely) wouldn't just be a misunderstanding of the NHL's economy; it'd be a failure to properly read the Wild's map to a Stanley Cup.
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