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Wild Sign Nico Sturm To Two-Year Deal

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3:10 p.m.: It’s a two-year deal for Sturm at $2MM per season, the team announced.

11:45 a.m.: According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Minnesota Wild are closing in on a reunion with free agent center Nico Sturm. The seven-year veteran recently won the second Stanley Cup championship of his career with the Florida Panthers.

The last time Sturm played for the Wild was back in 2021-22. Minnesota traded him to the Colorado Avalanche during that year’s trade deadline, allowing him to win the first Stanley Cup championship of his career. Shortly thereafter, Sturm signed a three-year contract with the San Jose Sharks, only to take a similar path with the Panthers at last year’s deadline.

Throughout his previous four tenures in Minnesota, of which only two he spent most of his time in the NHL, Sturm scored 20 goals and 36 points in 111 contests with a +7 rating. Additionally, he was a net positive in the faceoff dot, securing a 51.3% success rate in over 500 draws.

He’ll likely return to a fourth-line role with the Wild, especially after the team jettisoned Frédérick Gaudreau to the Seattle Kraken a few days ago. Sturm won’t bring as much offense to Minnesota’s bottom-six as Gaudreau, but he’s as defensively sound. Unlike several of his peers in Minnesota, Sturm has Stanley Cup experience, which is significant for an organization that has never reached the finals.

Image courtesy of  Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Minnesota Wild Announce New Arena Name

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  • Although they’ll be playing in the same arena, the Minnesota Wild’s home will operate under a new name. Minnesota Sports & Entertainment announced a 14-year naming rights partnership with Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley. Starting in the 2025-26 season, the stadium formerly known as the Xcel Energy Center will become the Grand Casino Arena.

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Washington Capitals Acquire, Extend Declan Chisholm

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Jun. 30th: It didn’t take long for the Capitals to extend their newest blueliner. According to PuckPedia, Washington has signed Chisholm to a two-year, $3.2MM contract, with a flat $1.6MM salary each year. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 campaign.

Jun. 28th: The Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals have gotten together on a defenseman trade. According to a team announcement, the Wild have traded Declan Chisholm and the 180th overall pick to the Capitals in exchange for Chase Priskie and the 123rd overall pick.

Thus ends a one-and-a-half-year run in Minnesota for Chisholm. The longtime depth defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets partway through he 2023-24 season and turned it into a consistent role with the Wild for some time. In large part due to injuries across Minnesota’s defensive core, Chisholm managed a career-high of 66 games played this past season.

Even further, Chisholm achieved career-highs across the board. He finished the season with two goals and 12 points, averaging nearly 17 minutes of ice time, with a -5 rating and 69 blocked shots. Additionally, his 50.4% CorsiFor% at even strength and 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength made him a quality depth piece for the Wild to have on hand.

Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to find a similar role in Washington. The Capitals already have seven defensemen signed through next season, without mentioning they’ll need a new contract for depth defenseman Alexander Alexeyev. If Chisholm isn’t content with moving back to the AHL, he’s an easy non-tender candidate heading into next week.

Meanwhile, Priskie has spent the last two years as a prominent blueliner for the AHL’s Hershey Bears and is expected to hold a similar role with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s scored 20 goals and 69 points in 130 AHL contests over the past two years, with an additional four goals and 19 points in 28 postseason contests.

Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that the Wild were trading Chisholm.

Wild Acquire Vladimir Tarasenko From Red Wings

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The Wild have acquired winger Vladimir Tarasenko from the Red Wings in exchange for future considerations, Detroit announced on X. It does not appear the Red Wings are retaining any of Tarasenko’s $4.75MM cap hit for the final season of his contract.

Tarasenko had an eight-team approved trade list as part of the two-year, $9.5MM deal he signed with the Wings in free agency last summer. It’s not clear if Minnesota was on it – he may have waived the clause to facilitate a trade after an incredibly trying lone season in Hockeytown. The two-time Stanley Cup champion and All-Star couldn’t hang onto a consistent top-six role with the Wings, and his 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games amounted to the worst scoring pace of his 13-year NHL career.

The Wild are betting on a rebound and will essentially complete this deal in lieu of making a free-agent addition on the wing tomorrow, preferring to land a more conservative short-term commitment from Tarasenko instead of making a long-term splash on the open market.

Tarasenko will return to the league’s Central Division, where he previously spent 11 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. Tarasenko was perhaps the Blues’ best prospect in the 2010s. He joined the team via a draft-day trade in 2010 that sent high-end selection David Rundblad to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the 16th-overall pick. St. Louis used that to reel in the top Russian prospect that year, kicking off a decade of close attention surrounding Tarasenko.

The bulky right-winger continued on in Russia’s KHL for three seasons following his draft year. He reached point-per-game scoring in the latter two years, with 70 points in 70 games, before making a move to the NHL partway through the 2012-13 season. Tarasenko’s travel to the United States was closely followed, and fan excitement was vindicated when he scored two goals in his NHL debut. Tarasenko went on to pot 10 points through his first eight NHL games, en route to a season-long total of 19 points in 38 games.

Tarasenko immediately carved out his role in the NHL with that hot start. He’d be promoted to the Blues’ top-six in 2013-14 and began a long streak of routinely rivaling the team’s scoring title. Tarasenko scored at least 30 goals and 60 points in six of his first nine years in the NHL, with his only misses coming on the back of inexperience or long-term injury. His career peaked with 40 goals and 74 points in the 2015-16 season, then again in 2021-22 when he scored 34 goals and 82 points in 75 games.

Tarasenko moved on from the Blues partway through the 2022-23 season. He’s appeared with four different clubs in the three seasons since, and struggled to find the same flashy scoring he boasted in a Blues jersey. Twenty-three goals and 55 points scored in 76 games last season stand as the most Tarasenko has scored away from St. Louis, though he tumbled all the way down to 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games this year.

It is on the heels of that down year — the lowest-scoring season in Tarasenko’s career, excluding injury-riddled years — that the flashy Russian will move to the Minnesota Wild. He shot at an abysmal 8.3 shooting percentage last year, over four percent lower than his career-long average of 12.6 percent. That mark should give Wild fans some hope that Tarasenko can find his way back to the scoresheet with a change of scenery. He’ll slot into a comfortable role on the team’s third line behind Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy, though a hot hand could push him back into the Wild’s top six. That upside, and Tarasenko’s career-long average of 30 goals and 65 points a season, will make him an exciting upside bet. And with only future considerations headed the other way, and a manageable $4.75MM cap hit, Minnesota will take on that upside bet with little risk.

As for the Red Wings, they free up that space and now have over $23MM in cap space heading into free agency tomorrow, per PuckPedia. With Patrick Kane as their only pending free agent expected to command a significant payday, they’ll have the flexibility to match the highest offers for their desired targets. They’ll presumably be looking to add at least one high-profile defender to pair with Simon Edvinsson or Moritz Seider. The Wild, meanwhile, still have $13MM to spend this summer.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.

Wild’s Jonas Brodin Underwent Surgery, To Miss Start Of Season

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According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, General Manager Bill Guerin has confirmed that Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin underwent upper-body surgery a few weeks ago, and he’ll likely miss the beginning of the 2025-26 season.

It’s an interesting development considering Brodin played for Team Sweden at the 2025 IIHF World Championships a few weeks ago. After scoring three goals and seven points in 10 tournament contests, Russo indicated that despite being medically cleared to play in the international competition, Brodin’s upper-body injury flared up again.

If Guerin’s assessment is correct and Brodin misses several games at the start of the 2025-26 season, it will be the seventh consecutive year that he has not played 80 or more games. The 13-year veteran has been mired by injuries for much of his career, failing to register even 70 games in three straight years.

Being limited to only 50 regular-season games during the 2024-25 campaign, it was Brodin’s lowest games played total since his rookie campaign during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Still, he was able to avoid his worst offensive output, managing four goals and 20 points with a +10 rating when available.

Because he’s such a quality option for Minnesota when healthy, it would be inappropriate to call Brodin’s contract a sunk cost. Sure, the Wild would like more availability from their third-highest-paid defenseman, but his ability when healthy makes up for the lost time.

It’ll be interesting to see how Guerin fills the void left by Brodin. Depending on the duration of his absence, the team may shift Marco Rossi’s trade negotiations towards a readily available top-four option. Still, due to their urgent need for a second-line center, Minnesota is likely to wait for Brodin’s return and utilize internal candidates to fill the gap.

Blue Jackets Acquire Brendan Gaunce From Wild

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The Blue Jackets have acquired center Brendan Gaunce from the Wild in exchange for right-winger Cameron Butler, the team announced Thursday.

Gaunce, 31, begins his second stint in Columbus after spending one season in Minnesota. The Wild signed him to a two-year, two-way deal on the opening day of free agency last year after spending three seasons in the Blue Jackets organization, primarily with AHL Cleveland. He only made 12 NHL appearances, posting one point and a minus-four rating while averaging 9:42 of ice time per game.

He spent the bulk of the season down with AHL Iowa when he wasn’t in the Twin Cities as an injury call-up. There, he posted a 15-14–29 scoring line in 39 games while posting a -16 rating and serving as an alternate captain. That was one of the better stat lines on a weak Iowa club this year, and his 0.74 points per game was higher than his career average of 0.69 over 382 minor-league games over the course of his lengthy professional career.

As for Butler, the 23-year-old gets a fresh start after a rocky beginning to his professional career. Columbus signed him as an undrafted free agent following a 55-point season with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals in 2022-23. He’s struggled to even hold down a regular AHL role in Cleveland, though, posting just 11 points in 91 games over the last three years. He only appeared in 37 out of 72 possible games last season and was looking like a strong non-tender candidate when his entry-level contract expires following the 2025-26 campaign. He’ll now look for more ice time in Iowa as the 6’4″, 209-lb power winger looks to get his development back on track.

Seattle Kraken Acquire Frédérick Gaudreau

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11:17 a.m.: Both teams have confirmed the trade.

10:32 a.m.: The Seattle Kraken are making their forward core tougher to play against.. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Kraken have acquired forward Frédérick Gaudreau from the Minnesota Wild for a draft pick. Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff quickly added that the Kraken are sending their 2025 fourth-round pick (102nd overall) to the Wild.

For a second time since the Stanley Cup Final ended, the Kraken have taken advantage of a team looking to clear salary from their roster. Similarly to the trade that brought Mason Marchment to Northwest Washington, Seattle has procured a quality middle-six option on the cheap.

Gaudreau is coming to the Kraken on the heels of one of the better campaigns of his career. He finished the 2024-25 campaign fifth on the Wild in scoring with 18 goals and 37 points in 82 games. Although he’s best in a third-line role, Gaudreau spent much of the year in Minnesota’s middle-six due to injuries at the top of their forward hierarchy.

Although he showed more thump in his offensive output this past season, there is reason for pause. Gaudreau finished the campaign with a 16.4% shooting percentage, nearly double his career percentage leading up to the season.

On the defensive side of the puck, he was largely a net-zero. He had a dismal 44.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, but maintained a palatable 48.2% success rate in the faceoff dot with a 90.4% on-ice save percentage at even strength while starting 53.7% of his shifts in the defensive zone. It’ll be interesting to see if Seattle deploys Gaudreau as a center, given they’ve got Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, Chandler Stephenson, and Joe Veleno down the middle already. Either they’re planning on shifting Gaudreau or one of the aforementioned players to the wing, or the Kraken are planning another trade from their forward core, similar to trading away André Burakovsky.

Meanwhile, the Wild’s take on the trade is fairly obvious. Trading Gaudreau relieves another $2.1MM from their 2025-26 salary cap table, giving them $17.7MM in available space leading up to July 1st. Now, even if they were to sign Marco Rossi for his asking price of $7MM per season, the Wild would have more than $10MM left to bring more quality pieces into the fold.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see how they re-work their options down the middle if they were to trade Rossi. Top free agent options such as Brock Nelson and Matt Duchene have already been taken off the table, while John Tavares is still expected to re-sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs. As of now, if they trade Rossi without acquiring a prominent center in return, they’d likely enter the season with Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman as their top two options down the middle.

Wild Hire Greg Cronin To AHL Head Coach Role

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The Minnesota Wild have announced they’ve hired Greg Cronin to be the next head coach of the AHL’s Iowa Wild. Cronin will move to the role after spending the last two seasons as the coach of the Anaheim Ducks. The move was made official by Iowa general manager Matt Hendricks, who shared that the club is eager to add Cronin’s thorough hockey experience into their minor-league ranks.

Cronin is no stranger to minor-league roles. Prior to his time in Anaheim, all seven of Cronin’s years as a pro head coach came in the NHL – through a two-year stint with the Bridgeport Islanders from 2003 to 2005, and a five-year stint with the Colorado Eagles from 2018 to 2023. He intercut those tenures with prolonged roles as a college head coach or NHL assistant coach. In almost every year since 1995, Cronin has found coaching experience at one of those levels. His journey has taken him through time behind the bench at the University of Maine and Northeastern University, as well as with the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs.

For all of his years at the helm, Cronin has yet to take a team to much postseason success. A second-round exit in the 2021 and 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs marked the furthest playoff runs of Cronin’s coaching career at either a collegiate or professional level. He has posted a cumulative record of 107-117-31 in the NCAA, 242-165-51 in the AHL, and 62-87-15 in the NHL.

Wild Close To Hiring Greg Cronin As Head Coach For Iowa

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The Wild are closing in on hiring Greg Cronin as the new head coach of their AHL affiliate in Iowa, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link).  Cronin was the bench boss in Anaheim for the last two seasons before being let go after the season with Joel Quenneville taking over behind the bench for the Ducks.  Cronin has been a coach for more than 35 years and has lots of experience running the show in the minors.  Before joining Anaheim, Cronin used to coach Colorado’s affiliate, leading the Eagles to a 164-104-30 record over five years.  Iowa hasn’t won a playoff round since 2019 and has only made the playoffs once in that span so a proven developmental coach like Cronin would be a nice pickup for Minnesota to help try and turn things around on the farm.

Canucks Reportedly Make Offer For Marco Rossi

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In an article by Michael Russo and Joe Smith from The Athletic, which was later confirmed by Patrick Johnston of The Province, there is a growing consensus that the Vancouver Canucks have made a formal offer to the Minnesota Wild for Marco Rossi. While the complete trade offer remains unclear, the trio of writers believes the Canucks proposed the 15th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft along with a player.

Johnston elaborated in his article stating that it’s unclear whether the player offered to the Wild was a prospect, or one currently rostered with the Canucks. Still, the news confirms that Vancouver is being aggressive in their pursuit of upgrading their second-line center.

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