Wild place Victor Rask on waivers, sign goalie

The Minnesota Wild just cannot stop doing some damn transactions on a Tuesday afternoon!

After recalling their two top prospects in Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy to the NHL, the Wild have placed forward Victor Rask on waivers to make room for them on the roster and in the lineup.

Rask, 28, is in the final year of his contract that holds a cap hit of $4,000,000 AAV. So unless a team is really desperate for some defense-first center that gets paid some big bucks — oh, is that the Ottawa Senators I hear off in the distance? — he is most likely going to go unclaimed and will be suiting up for the AHL Wild for the rest of the season, barring any insane injury crisis for the NHL team to come knocking again.

Ever since being the sole return for Nino Niederreiter from the Carolina Hurricanes, Rask has been unfortunately dubbed as a bust in an attempt to solidify the Wild’s center spot. Just another Paul Fenton fuck up that gets sorted out by Bill Guerin a couple years after. He was serviceable during some of the most memorable Wild teams in the last decade or so, so there’s at least that.

This season, he has four goals and 10 points in 21 games with a shrinking average time-on-ice. During his 141 games he’s played for Minnesota, Rask has 21 goals and 49 points.

Also on the waiver wire, but as a Wild acquisition, is goaltender Zane McIntyre. The 29-year-old netminder has been signed as an unrestricted free agent, and as the NHL season is past the deadline for teams to sign players without them passing through waivers, the Wild have done so here.

McIntyre is just goaltending depth for the taxi squad and the AHL. With Cam Talbot out with an injury, Andrew Hammond and Kaapo Kahkonen are serving as the NHL tandem — and since Dereck Baribeau is also out with an injury and Hunter Jones is recently out of COVID protocol, McIntyre will be joining the AHL squad in Grand Rapids to serve that tandem with Jones. Who knows if it lasts, but someone has to be there while Talbot is out and the depth chart is shuffled around.

McIntyre most recently played for the Arizona Coyotes’ AHL affiliate in Tuscon, earning a .909 save percentage in three appearances.