Wild acquire Marcus Johansson from Capitals

The NHL trade deadline is 72 hours away and the Minnesota Wild are reportedly getting in on the real action for the first time.

According to ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, the Wild have acquired forward Marcus Johansson from the Washington Capitals for a third-round pick.

Of course, we are very familiar with Johansson already after he was a part of the Wild during the weird bubble season of 2020-21. During those 36 games he played (because he was injured for a good chunk of them), he scored six goals and 14 points while averaging 17:09 TOI.

Since then, he played for the inaugural Seattle Kraken before returning to another former team and signing with the Capitals. This season, Johansson had scored 13 goals and 28 points in 60 games. It’s not the most impressive stat line, but to be fair to Marcus, those 13 goals would rank him fourth on the Wild in that category.

Johansson is a pending unrestricted free agent and carries a cap hit of $1.1 million.

Maybe this is GM Bill Guerin really buying low and acquiring a player that he is familiar with.

UPDATE: It’s official.

The pick will be in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Now we are just left wondering what happens next. Is Jordan Greenway going to be traded before Friday’s deadline to make room for Johansson? Or are the Wild just getting as much depth as possible in case something goes wrong?

Where does Johansson even play? He could theoretically slot in next to Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, but could fit in a little bit better stylistically taking Greenway’s spot next to Frederick Gaudreau and Brandon Duhaime.

We’ll have to see what happens next.