What's the Wild Next Big Move After Signing Faber?

Last month, the Minnesota Wild locked up a crucial piece of their future by signing Brock Faber to an 8-year, $68-million deal. With the team’s homegrown, feel-good machine secure, the Wild have most of their key roster pieces in place for the long-awaited and highly anticipated 2025-26 season. 

Yes, that’s the same 2025-26 season Wild fans have yearned for about since the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. The same 2025-26 season when the Wild will reclaim over $13 million of salary cap space and escape their self-inflicted financial hellscape. Wild fans had earmarked the same 2025-26 season for the team to hit free agency, flush with cash, ready to make moves to bolster a serious Stanley Cup run. 

But with just one season standing between the Wild and their financial freedom, what was supposed to be an exciting time has been foiled yet again, thanks to a rash of veteran extensions. Bill Guerin appears to be in his Oprah era, readily offering generous contracts to any and all willing audiences. And it’s easy to lose track of how You get $4 million!, You get $7 million!, and $4.5 million to the man in the back with no shirt! ultimately affect the big picture. 

So, where do things stand exactly? How much of the $13 million is already allocated? Will there still be an opportunity to land a big free agent? Has everything been ruined before it could even begin?! 

Okay, let’s collectively take a deep breath, heed the wisdom of modern-day philosopher and supreme thinker Lil Jon, and back, back, back it up. Now, let’s stop and wiggle with it see what we can do about answering some of those questions. 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared on a recent episode of his 32 Thoughts podcast that the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season will be “just under $93 million.” That’s nearly a $5 million jump from the $88 million cap this season and $10 million from $83 million last year*. To keep things to round numbers, we will use $92.5 million as the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season. All contract numbers indicate the projected 2025-26 cap hit for the named player.

Forwards (9):

Kirill Kaprizov ($9M)
Matt Boldy ($7M)
Joel Eriksson Ek ($5.25M)
Mats Zuccarello ($4.13M)
Marcus Foligno ($4M)
Ryan Hartman ($4M)
Yakov Trenin ($3.5M)
Freddy Gaudreau ($2.1M)
Liam Öhgren (0.89M)

Defense (5):

Brock Faber ($8.5M)
Jared Spurgeon ($7.58M)
Jonas Brodin ($6M)
Jake Middleton ($4.35M)
Zach Bogosian ($1.25M)

Goalies (1):

Filip Gustavsson ($3.75M)

Buyouts: $1.67M

2025-26 Cap Hit: ~$72.95M

That’s 15 players under contract on a 23-man roster, leaving a touch under $20 million for Minnesota to fill out those last eight roster spots. This does not include pending restricted free agents Marco Rossi, Jesper Wallstedt, Marat Khusnutdinov, or Jakub Lauko, nor pending UFAs such as Declan Chisholm. If any of them come back, they’ll eat into that money but give Minnesota one less roster spot to fill.

But $19.5 million for eight roster spots is not the Looney-Toons-bulging-heart-eyes number many cap-savvy Wild fans hoped to see for Minnesota. And while it’s fair to assume Minnesota will need to acquire at least one, maybe two players via trade or free agency to realize their goal of a deep Cup run, thanks to savvy drafting, the team is still in a considerably better position than their cap situation would indicate.

Depending on who you ask, the Wild’s prospect pool ranks somewhere between 5th and 11th. Regardless of what the notoriously masochistic fanbase will tell you, that’s indisputably solid for a team that has only drafted in the top 10 once in the last 12 years. 

It also means that the Wild have several veritable, cap-friendly solutions, several of whom happen to be maturing into NHL-readiness at just the right time. So, who’s poised to step into these 2025-26 roster openings? Let’s take a look at who’s waiting in the wings.

It’s looking increasingly like the Wild will ultimately return all of their forward prospects not named Liam Öhgren, including Riley Heidt, to their respective teams this season, if for no other reason than there’s no opportunity for meaningful playing time.

Next summer should be a different story. 

At a minimum, Guerin will likely be tasked with finding a roster spot for the highly anticipated KHL star Danila Yurov, who the Wild has yet to sign. Yurov excelled as a 20-year-old center in the KHL last season and brings the dynamic, high-end skillset Minnesota badly needs down the middle. After playing three-plus professional seasons by this time next year, we expect Yurov to be NHL-ready, offering the Wild a plug-and-play solution at an entry-level price. 

That brings us back to the uncertainty surrounding Rossi and Khusnutdinov’s futures. Rossi, the subject of frequent trade rumors, and Khusnutdinov are both undersized left-shot centers with expiring deals. They are likely competing for the same roster spot. 

If we buy into Rossi’s trajectory – and we have no real reason not to believe in the All-Rookie team member – it would be perplexing if the Wild didn’t capitalize on the value proposition he offers. We’ll see what Khusnutdinov brings in his first full NHL season, but all signs point to this being an intriguing storyline for Minnesota. 

The Wild don’t have obvious in-house solutions on the back end, aside from one major exception: Zeev Buium (unsigned). Maybe you’ve heard about him? After a jaw-dropping 50-point freshman campaign at Denver, Guerin will undoubtedly be chomping at the bit to get the 2024 National Champion and First-Team All-American into a Wild sweater for the 2025-26 season. 

Minnesota’s most intriguing developments almost certainly reside in the goal crease. It’s all but assured that we will see Wallstedt, who the Wild expect to be their franchise goalie in St. Paul full-time for 2025-26. After a disappointing season, all eyes will be on Gustavsson to bounce back to the form that earned him his $3.75 million contract. However, a hot start from Gustavsson could just as easily be his ticket out of town, freeing the net for Wallstedt to transition into the Wild’s No. 1 goaltender.

A vacancy in St. Paul also creates an opportunity for Samuel Hlavaj ($875K), the undrafted free agent and resident exercise bike mauler, to show whether he might be capable of bigger things. Hlavaj has impressed on international duty for Slovakia at the last two World Championships and could be positioned as the Wild scouting team’s next hidden gem. At the very least, he looks like a solid insurance option at a bargain price.

Okay, that was a lot. Let’s assume that Rossi, Wallstedt, and Khusnutdinov will stay on bridge deals (using Evolving-Hockey’s current contract projections), Yurov and Buium make next season’s roster, then see how the roster shakes out from there:

Rossi (three years, $3.4M AAV)
Khusnutdinov (two years, $860K)
Yurov (ELC, $950K)
Buium (ELC, $950K)
Wallstedt (three years, $1.9M)
= 8.06 million

Projected cap remaining: $11.49 million

Remaining spots to be filled: 3 (~3.8 million per spot)

Now that we’ve established the bare minimum of what the Wild can reasonably expect for their cap space in 2025-26, let’s look at some pending free agents that might fit the bill.

Using the above players, the Wild will still need to sign a forward and two defensemen. With their top-4 defensive core signed and Buium on the horizon, the back-end solutions will likely be cost-effective options (think Chisholm and Merrill’s $1-1.2 million) who can fill the decidedly unglamorous role of 6th and 7th defensemen. That will allow Guerin to allocate more of the remaining cap space to his struggling offensive depth.

That’s also where we’re going to direct our attention. The 2025 UFA class at forward is remarkably unglamorous, filled with aging players, something the Wild are certainly set on. But sorting through these, we can still find some intriguing names on the UFA and trade market.

Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG, UFA)

Maybe the best and least complicated offensive acquisition for the Wild. The speedy winger with power play potential has already made clear that he is looking for a change of scenery. Concerns surrounding his size, durability, and lack of playoff production would be reasons to pump the breaks in offering him a long-term deal at more than the $6 million rate he’s currently receiving.

Martin Necas (CAR, $6.5 million through 2025-26)

Oh, what we wouldn’t give to see the Necas in a Wild sweater. A big, strong, gifted center, Necas would be a dream acquisition. With his current contract running through the 2025-26 season, he’s likely just that, a dream. Given the Carolina Hurricanes’ similar playoff aspirations, the return from Minnesota would be substantial, likely centering around multiple high-end prospects, including Rossi.

Blake Coleman (CGY, $4.9 million through 2026-27)

Coleman would be a great option for the Wild to add offensive depth with championship pedigree. Coming off a career-high 30-goal season, Coleman is a high-speed forward who excels on the penalty kill. He brings durability and tenacity to a team that would greatly benefit from his experience and skill set. The Flames have no real playoff aspirations and massive cap flexibility, making them a good financial partner for the Wild. The fit seems great, too, as Coleman just feels like a Guerin-type player.

Another Brock (NYI or VAN, UFA)

Yeah, yeah, you knew there had to be at least one hometown option on this list, so let’s look at the possibility of the Wild adding another Brock: Nelson or Boeser. Brock Nelson and Brock Boeser are set to be UFAs next summer, coming off similar $6 and $6.5 million contracts, respectively. But both players come with concerns: Nelson will turn 34 next fall. Boeser is coming off a season where he scored 40 goals and racked up 73 points. Both are career bests, and it looks like he might price himself out of the Wild’s range, especially with that Kaprizov contract on the horizon.

*An earlier version of this post misstated the cap increase over the past two years. We regret the error.