One team that has received a lot of attention the last few days is the Minnesota Wild, who were a hotbed of trade chatter coming up to the trade deadline, which just passed due to their possession of multiple defensemen who they would likely have to expose if they couldn’t make a deal. However, the Wild stood pat and did not make any last minute trades and as of now, the team had no side deals going with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, according to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.
Many teams had been looking to make big deals with Minnesota, who had too many defensemen on their roster and had to lighten their load. Going with a 7-3-1 protection scheme, the Wild were already expected to protect blueliners Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon and then would have to choose between Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin and Marco Scandella for the final protection spot. That would expose two of those three to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
According to Russo, the team had been working on several deals before the deadline, including a possible trade to acquire Jonathan Drouin from Tampa Bay or Alex Galchenyuk from Montreal. There were no details on how close Minnesota came to making a deal with the Canadiens, but Montreal wanted a package that included Scandella. The main issue, however, for general manager Chuck Fletcher was that if he traded away one of those three defensemen, he didn’t want to lose another to the Golden Knights in the expansion draft, therefore losing two defensemen. Standing pat ensures that one of those blueliners will be staying with the club.
- San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson announced that pending unrestricted free agent winger Ryan Carpenter has been signed to a two-year contract today, according to the Sharks website on NHL.com. The 26-year-old Carpenter played in just 11 games this past season, scoring two goals and two assists. He did score 14 goals for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda in 54 contests. The team also signed Joakim Ryan and Tim Heed, as well, each to two-year contracts, tweeted by NBC Sports’ Kevin Kurz. Ryan, a 24-year-old defenseman scored 10 goals and 39 assists in 65 games for the Barracudas. Heed, also a defenseman, is coming off an even better year, putting up 14 goals and 42 assists in 55 games for the Barracudas. Heed only played one game for the Sharks this year, while Ryan has not made his NHL debut yet. All three have a legitimate chance to crack the Sharks rotation out of training camp depending on the team’s offseason moves.