After avoiding arbitration with Nino Niederreiter with a five-year deal, it was expected that the team would strike a similar term with Mikael Granlund. However, that wasn’t the case as he ultimately inked a shorter-term pact, signing for three seasons. Speaking with KFAN 100.3 in Minneapolis, GM Chuck Fletcher acknowledged that their salary cap situation basically forced them into the shorter deal:
“Those UFA years can get expensive. We’re trying to keep the cap number as low as possible. To buy more of Granlund’s UFA years would have made the cap number higher, obviously. We would have had to buy prime UFA years right now and that may have caused us to move another player.”
With Niederreiter checking in at $5.25MM on his new deal and Granlund at $5.75MM, the Wild now find themselves with just $3.1MM in cap space per CapFriendly and still have Marcus Foligno to sign. His qualifying offer was his 2016-17 salary of $2.25MM so his new deal will eat up the majority of their remaining space.
Despite that, Fletcher admitted that he would still like to add another veteran forward at some point:
“I think to add a veteran forward can always be a good thing. It’s always good to have depth and it’s a long season, as we’ve seen through the years. You can’t anticipate having the injuries you’re going to have. So I think adding a veteran player would be a good thing. Whether we look at it now or sometime during the year or at the end of camp – the cap comes into play though, a little bit.”
Adding another veteran would also allow the team to hedge against youngsters like Luke Kunin and Joel Eriksson Ek not being ready for full-time NHL duty. As it stands, there’s a decent chance that at least one of them may be shuffled back and forth to and from the minors in an effort to save a bit of room throughout the season.
[Related: Wild Depth Chart From Roster Resource]
They’re no strangers to waiting to add a veteran depth piece until the season gets underway, however. Last season, they waited until just before the trade deadline to bring Ryan Carter back on a two-way deal (although he didn’t get into any NHL action after signing).
One veteran who has been speculatively linked to the Wild this summer is Matt Cullen, who spent three years with the team previously and is from the area. However, Fletcher noted during the interview that he has yet to have any discussions with the 40-year-old free agent so far. Given that their best fit in terms of the salary cap would be to add a veteran on a two-way deal that could start in the minors (pending waivers), Cullen wouldn’t be an ideal fit for that role anyway. Depending on how much Foligno signs for, it wouldn’t be surprising to see their search for veteran depth go into training camp depending on who has to settle for a PTO deal.