- The Wild were without a pair of wingers for their game tonight against San Jose. The team announced (Twitter link) that Mats Zuccarello was out for personal reasons. The 36-year-old is hovering near the point-per-game mark this year with 50 points in his first 52 appearances. Meanwhile, NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce adds (Twitter link) that winger Marcus Johansson is dealing with a lower-body injury that kept him out of the lineup. Johansson isn’t producing at the rate he was down the stretch last season but still has 27 points in 61 games.
Wild Rumors
Zuccarello Fined By Department Of Player Safety
- The Department of Player Safety announced that they’ve fined Wild winger Mats Zuccarello and Predators winger Michael McCarron $2K each for unsportsmanlike conduct during the second period of Thursday’s game. Both players received minor penalties on the play. The money from the fines goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Marat Khusnutdinov To Join Team Next Week
- The Wild hope to have newly signed prospect Marat Khusnutdinov with the team by the end of next week, GM Bill Guerin told Joe Smith of The Athletic on Wednesday. After inking his two-year, entry-level deal yesterday, the 21-year-old Russian center will now begin the work visa and immigration process. Guerin confirmed that Minnesota would start him in the NHL upon his arrival and forego an initial assignment to AHL Iowa and anticipates him stepping into a center role down the stretch. The 2020 second-round pick had six goals, 14 assists, 20 points, and a -14 rating in 55 games with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi this season.
- Sticking with Minnesota, their game on the road in Nashville tonight will likely go a long way toward informing trade deadline strategies and playoff outcomes for both teams. The Predators now have a five-point gap between them and ninth-place Calgary for the final playoff spot in the West, while the Wild are looking to swing two points in their favor to draw within four of the postseason cutoff with a game in hand. Minnesota’s 8-2-1 run since the All-Star break has them squarely back in the playoff conversation after falling out of it entirely a couple of months ago, but a similarly scorching stretch from Nashville has helped them tighten their grip on a playoff berth for the 16th time in the last 20 seasons.
Wild Won’t Trade Marc-André Fleury
Feb. 28: It appears Fleury and the Wild are now solidly on the same page. Minnesota is informing teams they won’t be moving the veteran netminder ahead of the deadline, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Feb. 25: Wild netminder Marc-André Fleury has indicated he’d prefer to stay with the Wild as they attempt to stay in the Western Conference playoff race, Joe Smith of The Athletic relayed Sunday. As such, it appears unlikely he’ll waive his no-movement clause ahead of the March 8 trade deadline and will finish out the season in Minnesota.
“I don’t want to just quit, right?” Fleury said to Smith after the Wild’s 5-2 win over the Kraken on Saturday. “I want us to make the playoffs. That’s my first priority. I think being in the hunt, it’s fun, it’s challenging. And I want to be here and see this team make the playoffs.”
In the final season of a two-year, $7MM extension, the 39-year-old Fleury could regain the starting role in the Minnesota crease with Filip Gustavsson struggling if they manage to squeak into the postseason. Neither he nor Gustavsson has been above average, but he’s put up slightly better surface-level numbers with a .899 SV% and 2.92 GAA in 24 starts and four relief appearances. Gustavsson, on the other hand, has a .896 SV% and 3.23 GAA in 33 starts and one relief appearance.
Fleury has started five of nine games since returning from an upper-body injury sustained before the All-Star break. The Wild are 7-1-1 in that timeframe, firmly putting them back in postseason contention after they looked far out of place just a few weeks ago. They’re two points behind the Predators for the final Wild Card spot in the West.
Regardless of his intentions, there will likely be a fair amount of trade interest in Fleury over the coming days from contending teams looking to supplant a weaker starter with a better backup option. If the Wild can maintain a winning record between now and the deadline, however, it seems unlikely Fleury will green-light a deal.
Wild Sign Marat Khusnutdinov To Entry-Level Deal
4:01 p.m.: Per PuckPedia, Khusnutdinov’s deal carries a cap hit of $925K. The deal breaks down as follows:
2023-24: $832.5K base salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $80K minors salary
2024-25: $832.5K base salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $850K Schedule ’A’ performance bonus, $80K minors salary
1:31 p.m.: Minnesota has made Khusnutdinov’s signing official, inking him to a two-year, entry-level contract. Terms were not disclosed, although the deal begins immediately and will make him an RFA in 2025.
9:27 a.m.: The Wild are expected to sign 2020 second-round pick Marat Khusnutdinov to his entry-level contract in the coming days, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports.
Khusnutdinov’s time in the Russian KHL ended last weekend after his club, HK Sochi, wrapped up their regular-season schedule. They did not qualify for postseason play, and while his contract with the club expires this offseason regardless, Khusnutdinov’s agents are undergoing the process for a mutual contract termination so that Khusnutdinov can join the Wild before the KHL’s free agency period begins.
The 21-year-old plays both center and left wing and was selected out of the SKA St. Petersburg organization three years ago, where he remained until an early-season move to Sochi this year. He was a consensus early-second-round pick after posting 38 points and a +27 rating in 44 Russian junior league games in his draft year, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when the Wild took him off the board at 37th overall.
While his 5-foot-9, 165-lb frame may pose difficulties for him transitioning into a center role at the NHL level, he’s a spectacular skater, intelligent playmaker, and zone-entry machine – making him an important top-nine piece for the Wild in the coming years if he can physically adapt to North American play.
2023-24 was somewhat of a disappointing campaign for Khusnutdinov, however, who recorded no points through six games with St. Petersburg and only six goals and 20 points in 49 games for Sochi. Last season, he solidified himself as a top-six piece on a powerhouse St. Petersburg team stacked with NHL veterans such as Nikita Gusev and Dmitrij Jaskin, posting 41 points in 63 games and a +15 rating.
Minnesota’s director of player development, former NHL defenseman Brad Bombardir, told The Athletic’s Joe Smith last summer that the organization expected Khusnutdinov to jump into an NHL role immediately when he came over. By all indications, that remains their plan.
Khusnutdinov will count against the cap when he signs his deal in the coming days but won’t count against the 23-man roster. He’ll carry a non-roster designation while he gets his work visa, per Russo, and the Wild will need to make a transaction to clear a roster spot when he’s ready to debut.
While he’s likely not a long-term top-line answer, Khusnutdinov does add to a Wild center core that’s lacked much punch outside of Joel Eriksson Ek for the past number of years. Top-ten pick Marco Rossi is coming into his own and looks to ease those pains, but Khusnutdinov is likely better suited for a third-line role anyway. He’s ranked as Minnesota’s third-best center prospect by Dobber Prospects, trailing Rossi and 2023 second-round pick Riley Heidt.
Wild Could Trade Connor Dewar
- Wild depth forward Connor Dewar may join fellow Minnesota bottom-sixer Brandon Duhaime on the move in the coming days, as Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic posit. Duhaime, a pending UFA, is drawing trade interest from a few teams (namely the Canucks, per a report earlier this week) and is a decent candidate to be moved regardless of the Wild’s postseason intentions. Dewar may also fall victim to a roster crunch caused by the return of Mason Shaw from reconstructive ACL surgery and the arrival of Russian center prospect Marat Khusnutdinov, a younger, higher-ceiling replacement for Dewar in the fourth-line center role. The team controls Dewar’s signing rights as he’s an RFA this summer. He has 16 goals, 36 points and a -16 rating in 169 games with Minnesota since making his NHL debut in 2021.
Canucks Have Shown Interest In Brandon Duhaime
The Canucks are showing interest in Wild bottom-six grinder Brandon Duhaime, reports Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. As Seravalli notes, there’s no guarantee the Wild will shop any of their players with the postseason still a possibility. Still, he would add an element of experience and physicality to the Canucks that contenders often like to stock up on at deadline time.
The Wild are back above .500 and sit with a 28-24-6 record, good enough for 62 points. That places them four points behind the Predators for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with one game in hand. After a 7-2-1 run in their last 10, MoneyPuck pegs them with a 24.6% chance of leapfrogging both the Blues, who are tied with Minnesota but have played one fewer game, and Nashville, to squeak into the playoffs. Those odds are actually significantly higher than St. Louis, who now sits at 9.6% with a tougher schedule down the stretch and a .500 pace in their last 10 games.
It’s also extremely unlikely they opt to sell. GM Bill Guerin has expressed confidence in his squad as a playoff team throughout their tumultuous campaign, and their most prominent trade chip, goaltender Marc-André Fleury, carries a no-movement clause and recently indicated he’d like to stay in Minnesota as they push for the playoffs down the stretch. Duhaime, Jake Lucchini and Pat Maroon are the only three pending UFA forwards on the NHL roster, while declining veteran defenders Zach Bogosian and Alex Goligoski, as well as AHL mainstay Dakota Mermis, are pending UFAs on the blue line.
Duhaime, 26, has 189 games of NHL experience since making his debut with the Wild in 2021, scoring 19 goals and 33 points in that time. He notched a career-high 17 points and 122 PIMs in 80 games during his first season, but he’s not on pace to eclipse either mark in 2023-24. He’s averaged between 10 and 11 minutes per game in each of his three seasons, entrenching himself firmly in a fourth-line role in Minnesota.
His usually below-average possession numbers have been significantly worse this season, posting a Corsi share of 44% at even strength and an expected -6.6 rating, the latter of which is the worst on the team. As such, his most common linemates, Connor Dewar and Vinni Lettieri, have struggled to limit scoring chances against when on the ice together, controlling 42% of expected goals through 99 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.
Playing in all 58 Minnesota games this season, selling Duhaime while there’s interest may behoove the Wild regardless of their playoff aspirations. It may even benefit them – his possession impacts have been poor enough this season that a Duhaime deal could be a case of addition by subtraction. They’d also free up his $1.1MM cap hit (or part of it, if they choose to retain money) for the remainder of the year to use elsewhere.
Acquiring Duhaime, as well as the eventual return of the injured Dakota Joshua, would push recent call-up Arshdeep Bains and fringe winger Phillip Di Giuseppe out of a job in Vancouver’s bottom six. Bains, while he’s brought an energy element that head coach Rick Tocchet has praised over this three-game NHL stint, has no points and a -3 rating. Di Giuseppe has three goals and eight points through 40 games this year, averaging 12:15 per game.
Snapshots: Buchnevich, Bogosian, Rosen
The St. Louis Blues aren’t actively shopping winger Pavel Buchnevich but they are hearing out offers, shares team insider Jeremy Rutherford with The Athletic. Rutherford adds that any deal would likely start at a first-round draft pick and may even need two first-round picks to get done. That’s a steep price for an older veteran with just one year left on his contract but Buchnevich may earn it. He’s been one of St. Louis’ most productive players since joining them in 2021-22, totaling 186 points in 189 games with the club. That includes his 43 points in 53 games this season, a mark that ranks second on the Blues and puts Buchnevich on pace to break 65 points in his third season in a row.
Buchnevich became a pillar of the St. Louis offense quickly, scoring a career-high 76 points in 73 games during the 2021-22 season – a year that saw the Blues score their most goals in one season since 1981-82. He’s maintained that strength through the last two seasons, despite St. Louis’ scoring coming a bit slower, and even adapted to playing a top-line centerman role for parts of last season. His adaptability is evident, and that – as well as a chance to get a head start on contract negotiations – could be enough to convince playoff teams to pay a high premium at the Deadline.
Other notes from around the league:
- The St. Louis Blues are expected to send down Calle Rosen to make room to activate Scott Perunovich off of injured reserve, per team reporter Matthew DeFranks. Perunovich is returning from a lower-body injury that’s held him out of the team’s last seven games. He will continue his search for his first goal of the season, and his NHL career, recording 12 assists through 31 games this season.
- Minnesota Wild Defenseman Zach Bogosian is likely to miss at least a week of action after exiting the team’s Wednesday night game with an upper-body injury, per team reporter Michael Russo. Bogosian appears to have suffered the injury after blocking a shot from Nikolaj Ehlers, leaving the game after his shift. Bogosian has scored one goal and nine points in 44 games this season, serving a comfortable role in Minnesota’s top-four. His absence will likely lend way to Declan Chisholm or Jonathon Merrill gaining a larger role, though the Wild also have Alex Goligoski serving as a healthy scratch.
Trade Deadline Primer: Minnesota Wild
With the All-Star break in the rearview, the trade deadline looms large and is now just a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Minnesota Wild.
After making the playoffs a total of 10 times in the last 11 seasons, the Wild were once again looking to compete for the Stanley Cup this upcoming spring. Unfortunately, things have not gone according to plan, with Minnesota now on the outside looking in when it comes to the Western Conference playoff race. After a head coaching change earlier in the season, the Wild are certainly still within reach, and will likely look to add around the fringes in the hopes of making Lord Stanley’s tournament.
Record
25-23-5, 6th in the Central Division.
Deadline Status
Conservative Sellers
Deadline Cap Space
$4.53 MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 48/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2024: MIN 1st, MIN 2nd, MIN 4th, MIN 5th, BUF 5th, MIN 6th
2025: MIN 1st, MIN 2nd, MIN 3rd, TOR 4th, MIN 6th
Trade Chips
With Minnesota signing most of their would-be trade chips to extensions last offseason, there only remains one veteran on the roster that could attract any sort of interest on March 8th. Now in his 20th year and an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, the Wild could look to peddle goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with many contending teams looking to improve their situation between the pipes.
Fleury has been relatively productive this season, sporting a 10-9-3 record in 25 contests, carrying a .902 save percentage and 2.83 goals against average. Although he does carry a no-move clause, Fleury may waive that to join a contender in hopes of winning a Stanley Cup to cap off his career. 
Teams like the Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs could be interested in Fleury’s services, where he would primarily be utilized in a backup role to give their regular netminders more rest in between starts. Furthermore, teams such as the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils may be in desperation mode when it comes to fixing their goaltending woes and may prefer Fleury to start the majority of games down the stretch.
Outside of Fleury, considering the organization will likely be nibbling around the edges when it comes to the trade market this March, it is unlikely Minnesota will consider moving either of their first-round selections in the next two upcoming NHL Drafts. They may consider moving out a thin pool of mid-round selections, but it will not be enough for the Wild to make any significant improvements to the roster.
Team Needs
1) Get Younger – Currently, the Wild ranks as the fourth-oldest team in the NHL, with the average age sitting at 29.4. Outside of the numerous overseas prospects looking to make the jump to North America next year, Minnesota has defensive prospects Carson Lambos and Daemon Hunt who are certainly on the cusp. Keeping in mind the stardom of goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, the Wild certainly have plenty of young talent ready to bring to the top level. Factoring in these upcoming players, they make the early extensions given to the likes of Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno, and Mats Zuccarello more difficult to comprehend, as their contracts are not only difficult to move out, but are blocking a few prospects from regular playing time.
2) A Right-Shot Defenseman – In the short term, if Minnesota is looking to make the playoffs in the 2023-24 season, they need to replace the lost minutes of captain Jared Spurgeon sooner rather than later. Rookie defenseman Brock Faber has certainly held his own on the right side of the top unit, but it quickly falls apart behind him. Last season, the team chose to acquire John Klingberg from the Anaheim Ducks to strengthen the right side of their defense, and they certainly could use another top-four defenseman within that caliber of player.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minnesota Wild Sign Mason Shaw
Now fully recovered from the second ACL injury of his career, the Minnesota Wild have signed forward Mason Shaw to a one-year, $775K contract, per a team announcement. Shaw has already suited up for the organization’s AHL affiliate in Iowa this season, scoring four goals and seven points in nine games.
Originally drafted by the Wild with the 97th overall selection of the 2017 NHL Draft, it would take a few years for Shaw to eventually reach the organization in a full-time role, scoring 33 points in 76 games during the 2018-19 season in Iowa. Aside from a few shortened seasons from 2019-2021, Shaw finally made his debut in Minnesota over a three-game stint in 2021-22.
Last season, playing 59 games for the Wild of the NHL, Shaw scored seven goals and 17 points overall, before the second tear of his ACL would cut his year short on April 1st. Although he is not an offensive weapon by any stretch of the imagination, Shaw’s style of play does make the Wild more difficult to play against.
During his brief time in the NHL, Shaw’s workhorse mentality, his ability to finish his hits and play physically, and his strong defensive attributes make him a player that General Manager Bill Guerin has prioritized on his roster. Having already played a handful of games in Iowa this season, Shaw will join Minnesota for practice shortly, and will likely be available to play in a game in the near future.