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  • Wild Keep Mats Zuccarello In Minnesota For Two More Years

    Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

     

    The Minnesota Wild are not letting a narrative go on until next summer.

    Announced by the team on Friday morning, the Wild have signed veteran winger Mats Zuccarello to a two-year, $8.25-million contract extension that will carry a cap hit of $4.125 million through the 2025-26 season.

    According to multiple reports, this new deal for Zuccarello also includes a No-Move Clause for both years.

    The 36-year-old's five-year deal was set to expire after the upcoming season. As he heads into the real twilight years of his career, Zuccarello will also now be taking a significant pay cut of $1.875 million to stay in St. Paul. As of right now, Zuccarello's future cap hit of $4.125 million slots in below three of his forward teammates: Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Joel Eriksson Ek.

    With this signing, the Wild have approximately $20.5 million of cap space next summer but with significant holes in the lineup. As it stands, Minnesota is without a second goaltender, need ot fill at least one spot on the blue line, and now Zuccarello is just one of seven forwards under contract for the 2024-25 season. There appears to be at least some forward momentum for GM Bill Guerin to re-sign one or both of Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman, who are also on expiring deals and hold significant roles on this team.

    While some are projecting for some certain forward prospects like Marat Khusnutdinov, Liam Öhgren, and Danila Yurov to fill those holes, we do know that this Minnesota team likes to play it more safe with team building and keep familiar faces around. In the middle of last season they signed center Frederick Gaudreau to a five-year contract, and right before free agency, they re-signed Marcus Johansson to a two-year deal. They like what they know and some prospects being projected to come in and be the type of players that Foligno and Hartman are, is most likely something they are not willing to do.

    Outside of the roster construction, we do know that keeping Zuccarello keeps the most important player on this team happy. Ever since Kaprizov made his NHL debut, him and Zuccarello have established a chemistry on the ice and a friendship off of it. It's not always awful to cater to the team's star.

    In the last two full seasons of being on the Wild, Zuccarello has been more or less locked to Kaprizov's side on the ice. Because of that, the aging veteran has had two career years, hitting 79 points during the 2021-22 season and 67 points last season.

    It's clearly working to have Zuccarello on this team, so why not have him for a little bit longer at a lower price?

     

    By Thomas Williams  

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    vonlonster67

    Interesting his deal coincides with the end KK's contract. I don't want to read into that right? Yurov and Dino will be here and we'll be one more step closer to a Cup?

    Edited by vonlonster67
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    M_Nels
    11 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

    Interesting his deal coincides with the end KK's contract. I don't want to read into that right? Yurov and Dino will be here and we'll be one more step closer to a Cup?

    Very interesting, maybe the speculations do have some truth to them. 

    I am not a fan of this signing in the least, was hoping for 1yr max. I don't know if I can handle 2 more years of post All-Star break Zucc. At least I hope Dean has the stones to take him off the 1st line if he struggles. 

    Edited by M_Nels
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    mnfaninnc

    Chalk me up on the "this is a bad deal, I don't like it" side.

    But, I never liked the original deal either. And it's not really a dislike for the player, I think Zuccarello has outperformed his original deal here. I really just want to see the kids have opportunity. This suggests they don't unless there is an injury.

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    vonlonster67
    7 minutes ago, M_Nels said:

    Very interesting, maybe the speculations do have some truth to them. 

    I am not a fan of this signing in the least, was hoping for 1yr max. I don't know if I can handle 2 more years of post All-Star break Zucc. At least I hope Dean has the stones to take him off the 1st line if he struggles. 

    I'm there with you one year, $3M max, but being realistic from Zucci's prospective it was never gonna get done.

    I could live with a $4M/1yr before going for a two year deal. At least we are protected if he decides to call it after this year, but highly unlikely knowing his relationship with KK. I understand Zucci is uber talented, but as you pointed out, the regression at the end when we really need it. DE needs to recognize this and limit the play here and there. Fat chance of him adapting though.

    Edited by vonlonster67
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    Adamada

    In a vacuum this would be fine, a little pricey given age and the NMC. But given that the wild will still be dealing with cap hell next year and have a logjam of contracts and prospects it seems odd to do this now at best.

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    TheGoosesAreLooses

    I have a sneaking suspicion we will see Hartman and Foligno resigned as well. BG seems to love his pensioners and have no faith in the kids. If he expects to make a run before Kap's contract runs out, something needs to change. We aren't winning a cup with wheelchairs and walkers(not Sammy) on the ice. Vets are important but not at the cost of blocking our prospects further. 

    I'm tapped completely out of faith in DE and don't know how much I trust BG's vision anymore either. Hoping he can see the writing on the wall.

    I'm with most of you, this deal won't age well.

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    MrCheatachu

    I honestly don't hate it.  It probably means we're going to ship somebody out still (Addison/Duhaime would be my guesses)

    If Fleury is done ($3.5M) and the Goose is cooked ($2M) it looks like next season with the same country club fees, we will have $3.5+2+1.975 = $7.475M to sign Moose, Hartzy, Duhaime, Dewar (RFA), and Addison.

     

    Side note, with the NMC, this will make Zuccarello a MN wild player for 7 years 😲 which is close to as long as he was a Ranger (9 seasons).  For some reason he still feels like a short-term rental here...

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    Protec

    Probably cause unproven rookies aren't wise to bank on.

    People around here pencil in KHL, and injured Swedes, along with AHL players who've done almost nothing in the NHL. I'm not ragging on these players or the comments about their potential. I just don't think Guerin operates that way at all.

    GMBG has flexibility. I'm sure they've worked out the options and potential with the cap.

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    vonlonster67
    8 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

    With so many good prospects it stuns me that BG keeps closing down roster spots.

     

    Let's see what term.he does for Moose, I can see Hartzy for 3 years, but Moose will be blocking someone. I still trust BG's vision and knowing the behind the scenes on the prospects. 

    Remember he wasted no time with Boldy in signing him, getting him to and from IA, to the Wild, and resigned long term to a hell of a deal for the Wild in our cap crunch years

     

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    IllicitFive

    So I may be mistaken but my understanding is we have 2 years of buy out left at almost a 15mil hit/year. Does Lizards contract then end at the same time as the end of the buyouts or is it two years starting after this years contract ends?  Perhaps, if ending at the same time, its to allow more long term prospects get to Iowa, let the chemistry build there, and then go with a major youth movement in 2 years, have tons of cap space and possibly bring in a major FA or 2. (If his contract end date coincides with buyouts being gone) If not then I am not a fan of the 2 year deal. What do I know I am not a GM but was a conversation my buddy and I were having, the importance of chemistry on a team.  Realistically we are not competing for a cup the next two years but also don't want to have a culture of losing. You want hungry players who feel they have a chance if cards fall right but also create the best chemistry you can for the future. 

     

    Also while everyone is champing at the bit, including myself, to see what the kids can do in the show, what if confidence is shattered, sticks are gripped too tight and it hinders their development causing much longer term issues?  Was just an interesting convo over a few cold ones and curious what the die hard fans here think.  I fully am on the "IBGIT" group until proven otherwise.

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    Will D. Ness
    10 minutes ago, IllicitFive said:

    So I may be mistaken but my understanding is we have 2 years of buy out left at almost a 15mil hit/year. Does Lizards contract then end at the same time as the end of the buyouts or is it two years starting after this years contract ends?  

    Nope it extends one year past.  (Which is why I don't like it)

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    IllicitFive
    1 minute ago, Will D. Ness said:

    Nope it extends one year past.  (Which is why I don't like it)

    Well, dang, was hoping I wasn't understanding it and that it voided the final year of current contract and the new one kicked in. So much for that, now I can also ask why the 2 years at this price point. (I now don't like it much either and hope to be proven wrong)

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    Pewterschmidt
    1 hour ago, Protec said:

    Kaprizov and the Norwegian Hobbit baby!

    FdRbPS6WAAsMJzA.jpg.68be904f7c3fca242c9e20707073da13.jpg

    We can begin referring to these two as Ace and Gary

    At this point Zucc is 97's emotional support animal and the two are good together at ice hockey when Zucc's sock's are pulled all the way up.

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    M_Nels
    12 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

    Absolute insanity  4Mx4 🙄

    Man this one is a GIANT head scratcher! Man Billy kinda stumped me on this one. I just don’t see it, can’t make it make sense. 

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    TheGoosesAreLooses

    Someone remind Billy we still have the cap hit next year. We won't even be able to field a squad of AHLer's at this rate. We have ~16M left in cap space to fill 5 forward spots, 2 D spots + 7 RFA's in Iowa and 5 UFA's. Foligno was an utter garbage move with the term considered.

    Say goodbye to 2 of the only players Deano actually brought up out of Iowa in the Dewy Bros

    Edited by TheGoosesAreLooses
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    Willy the poor boy

    This plays into the opinion I've held all along which is in the minority. DE has been saving BG with his coaching. BG has stumbled, IMO, into success as GM for the Wild all along with the help of Evason. I think it's been pretty apparent all along also.

    Soft fruit only please...

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    TheGoosesAreLooses
    3 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

    This plays into the opinion I've held all along which is in the minority. DE has been saving BG with his coaching. BG has stumbled, IMO, into success as GM for the Wild all along with the help of Evason. I think it's been pretty apparent all along also.

    Soft fruit only please...

    I can not agree, but I can say I also wasn't of the IGMBGWT crowd. 

    I think Deano is a good reg season coach and BG was smoking a dump truck of crack today. Next announcement will be Hartman 8X6M💩

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