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Wild Recall Dakota Mermis, Reassign Vinni Lettieri

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The Wild recalled defenseman Dakota Mermis from AHL Iowa today, per a team announcement. Minnesota sent forward Vinni Lettieri to Iowa in a corresponding move to remain under the Upper Limit of the salary cap.

Mermis, 29, has appeared in 20 games for the Wild since signing as a free agent in 2020, recording two goals and three assists in 15:30 of average ice time. After clearing waivers, the Wild recalled Mermis early this season as injuries struck their blueline, playing him in a career-high 13 contests. After notching his only five points as a member of the Wild and recording a -1 rating, the Wild placed Mermis on waivers again in November, shortly after the return of captain Jared Spurgeon from injury, officially assigning him to Iowa less than a week later.

He’s only appeared in four games for Iowa since his November demotion. The left-shot defender has one assist, a -1 rating and 12 penalty minutes after recording 26 points in 63 games for Iowa last season. While Spurgeon likely won’t miss any time after departing yesterday’s win over the Blackhawks with an apparent lower-body injury, recent trade acquisition Zach Bogosian is banged up and likely to miss time on their upcoming Pacific Division road trip with an upper-body injury. With Bogosian not headed for long-term injured reserve, the Wild only have sufficient cap space for one extra player – meaning they’ll carry 12 forwards and seven defensemen for the trip instead of 13 forwards and six defensemen.

This is Letteri’s second demotion of the season after clearing waivers last month. The 28-year-old had played in two out of three games since his subsequent call-up on November 28, sitting as a healthy scratch against the Blackhawks yesterday and playing a limited role when in the lineup. A point-per-game threat in the minors, Lettieri has averaged 10:43 through 13 NHL appearances this season with two goals and one assist. The Minnesota-born center has 96 NHL games under his belt, dating back to the 2017-18 season with the Rangers, and remains a high-end AHL talent in his prime.

The Wild did not need to expose Lettieri to waivers because he had been on the NHL roster for less than 30 days and played less than 10 games since he cleared last month.

Zach Bogosian Out Day-To-Day

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  • Veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian will not play in today’s Minnesota Wild game, as the blueliner is dealing with an upper-body injury. Bogosian was acquired by Wild to help shore up their defense and has thus far played in nine games for the Wild. With him out of the lineup, Jon Merrill will get the call for Minnesota.

Morning Notes: Kane, Hartman, Meier

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TSN’s Pierre LeBrun shared on the latest episode of Insider Trading that Patrick Kane could be moved at the trade deadline if Detroit doesn’t hang on to their playoff contention. LeBrun continued by saying that Kane’s agent, Pat Brisson, and Wings general manager, Steve Yzerman, discussed all possibilities prior to the future Hall of Famer signing in Motor City, including the chance of Kane needing to find a new home to ensure another playoff berth.

Kane is signed to a one-year contract and clearly hoping to make it an efficient year. The 35-year-old winger has already had 11 Stanley Cup Playoff appearances through his 16-year, winning the Cup three times with the Chicago Blackhawks. But he’s missed much of the postseason over the last six years, only seeing the playoffs in 2019-20, with the Blackhawks, and in 2022-23, with the New York Rangers.

If Detroit isn’t able to maintain their playoff spot, the Insider Trading panel mentioned the Buffalo Sabres as a potential alternative for Kane. The panel shared that Buffalo doesn’t lack any interest in the star winger, enjoying the strong veteran presence that he would bring to a locker room. The Sabres and Red Wings are bound to be close in the playoff race come the end of the year, with the teams currently separated by five points in the standings.

Other notes from around the league:

Minnesota Wild Hire Patrick Dwyer As Assistant Coach, Recall Vinni Lettieri

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The Minnesota Wild have made two team announcements this morning: firstly, forward Vinni Lettieri has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. Additionally, another name is heading from Iowa to the Twin Cities: coach Patrick Dwyer.

The Iowa assistant has been elevated to new coach John Hynes’ staff, and he’ll take up the responsibilities left by former assistant Bob Woods, meaning he’ll help run the defense and penalty kill.

The recall of Lettieri was necessitated by the suspension of forward Ryan Hartman, who will miss the Wild’s next two games after slew-footing Alex DeBrincat. The grandson of longtime Minnesota North Stars GM Lou Nanne, Lettieri was a college hockey star in Minnesota who has settled into a role as a top-six AHLer and premier NHL call-up option.

This season, Lettieri has scored four points in six games for Iowa and two goals in 11 games with Minnesota. He last played in the NHL on November 18th, during the team’s trip to Sweden.

He could slot into Hartman’s vacated spot on the team’s third line, or Frédérick Gaudreau could see himself elevated from the fourth-line winger role to that 3C spot with Lettieri landing on the fourth line. Alternatively, coach Hynes could entirely re-construct the lineup for his first game in charge, which could introduce some more mystery as to where Lettieri would slot in.

As for Dwyer, the former NHLer began his coaching career as a player-coach with the Belfast Giants of the United Kingdom’s EIHL, serving in that role for the 2018-19 season. He then moved on to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, and then spent three seasons with the Chicago Wolves. He was part of the staff that won a Calder Cup with the Wolves in 2021-22, and began this season with Iowa before now receiving his first chance to coach behind an NHL bench.

Ryan Hartman Suspended Two Games

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Wild forward Ryan Hartman has been suspended two games for tripping Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Monday.

As already discussed, Hartman made an apparent slew-foot maneuver on DeBrincat midway through the third period of Sunday’s loss. NHL Player Safety gave the following rationale for the suspension:

It is important to note that Hartman has time and space to take a different angle down the boards in pursuing the puck that does not put him on a course to collide with DeBrincat. Instead, he chooses to approach DeBrincat from behind, and, while reaching for the puck, sweeps both of his feet, causing a dangerous backwards fall to the ice that gives DeBrincat little ability to defend or protect himself. What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the intentional nature of this action, combined with a disciplinary history of related incidents, having been fined twice for slew-footing or tripping his opponents.

Hartman is considered a repeat offender under NHL rules, as he was suspended in April of last season, which also contributed to seeing this play rise to a suspension.

The supplemental discipline creates a salary cap headache for the Wild, who already have enough on their plate to deal with after making a head coaching change today. The Wild now have just 11 forwards on the active roster, as while Hartman does not count against the 23-man limit while suspended, he does count against the salary cap. The Wild will likely opt to roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen with a bare minimum roster of 18 skaters over the next two contests, as none of their seven defensemen are waiver-exempt. The team’s $617K in cap space is not enough to accommodate a recall from AHL Iowa.

Minnesota Wild Fire Dean Evason, Name John Hynes Head Coach

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The Wild have relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods of their duties effective immediately, the team said in a statement Monday evening. Two hours later, they named former Devils and Predators bench boss John Hynes as their new head coach.

Wild GM Bill Guerin gave the following comment on the decision to part with Evason:

Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as Head Coach of our team. I am very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization. I would also like to thank Bob for his hard work during his time as an Assistant Coach with the Wild. I wish Dean, Bob and their families all the best in the future.

Evason had been a member of the Wild organization since he was brought on as an assistant in 2018, while Woods joined the Wild bench one season prior. The 59-year-old Evason began his coaching career with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen as an assistant in 1998-99 after finishing out his playing career in Germany, working his way up the junior hockey ranks over the next handful of seasons. His first NHL job came courtesy of an assistant role with the Capitals immediately after the 2004-05 lockout, coaching Alex Ovechkin in his first seven NHL seasons.

After departing Washington in 2012, Evason spent the next several seasons working in the Predators organization as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. There, he helped guide more than a few future NHL stalwarts – namely Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Calle Järnkrok, Viktor Arvidsson, and Kevin Fiala, among many others. After joining the Wild, he earned a promotion to head coach within two seasons when the Wild fired Bruce Boudreau late in the 2019-20 campaign.

Just a couple of years later, Evason had coached the Wild to their best season in franchise history. The 2021-22 campaign saw the Wild break the 50-win mark for the first time since their inception in 2000, nearly sitting atop the Central Division with 113 points. That was in an extremely tough group with the 119-point Stanley Cup champion Avalanche and the 109-point Blues, whom the Wild bowed out to in the first round of the playoffs. The Wild remain without a playoff series victory since the 2015 postseason and have not advanced to a Conference Final since the 2002-03 season.

So with the Wild now far out of the playoff picture with a 5-10-4 record, sitting bottom five in the league in both goals for and against, a change was necessary and expected. Injuries and goaltending have certainly played a factor in their poor play – captain Jared Spurgeon missed the first 13 games of the season, and Filip Gustavsson’s and Marc-André Fleury’s combined .878 SV% is near the bottom of the league.

They’ve likely been unlucky, too. The Wild have controlled a slim majority of scoring chances and a strong majority of high-danger chances during 5-on-5 play, a common theme for an organization that’s usually one of the more defensively stout in the league. But the culture around the team is evidently turning sour quickly, Kirill Kaprizov is on pace for a career-low 26 goals and has a team-worst -10 rating, and most of their depth defensemen have been significant liabilities. This roster is not all that different from the one that’s finished top-three in the Central Division for three straight seasons, and it’s certainly one that still has playoff aspirations.

Minnesota has not won since November 7 against the Islanders and is winless in seven straight.

Woods, who had worked on the Capitals’ bench with Evason briefly as an assistant in the early 2010s, is now on the open market after more than six seasons with the Wild. It’s unclear whether the Wild will opt to fill his vacancy.

Hynes, who was let go by the Predators after last season, is technically in the final season of his contract with Nashville. That means the Predators had to grant permission to their divisional rival to speak to their former head coach and that Hynes will be paid by both Minnesota and Nashville this season.

Now behind the bench of his third NHL franchise, he faces an uphill climb to get Minnesota back in the playoff picture. Hynes will suit up behind an NHL bench for a ninth consecutive season, as he was fired by the Devils and hired by Nashville midway through the 2019-20 campaign.

The Wild will certainly get a boost in the standings once Fleury and Gustavsson improve their play between the pipes, a likely scenario given their stellar performance last season. However, they again have the misfortune of being in quite a competitive division. The Avalanche and Stars occupy first and second place as expected powerhouses, while the Blues, Predators and Coyotes all sit at or above the .500 mark and, especially in Nashville’s case, have posted decent underlying numbers.

Hynes’ main job is simply to restore confidence in his group. This roster has the ability to play better – especially Kaprizov, who, despite the okay point production, has looked like a complete non-factor on some nights. The team also hopes a significant change behind the bench can boost their league-worst penalty kill, which is operating at just 66.7%. Penalty killing was an area of strength for Nashville last season, who finished tied for fourth in the NHL with an 82.6% success rate.

The Wild will be on the hook for the remainder of Evason’s contract, which runs through 2024-25 at just under $2MM per season.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report the Hynes hire.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Ryan Hartman To Have Player Safety Hearing

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Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman will have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Monday regarding a slew-foot against Detroit Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat during today’s loss, per a league announcement.

The incident occurred about halfway through the third period, with the Wild already trailing by multiple goals. As DeBrincat attempted to shield teammate Michael Rasmussen by the Wild bench as he carried the puck up the ice, Hartman approached DeBrincat from behind. Hartman’s foot made contact with the back of DeBrincat’s skates and continued to follow through as DeBrincat fell backward to the ice.

NHL Player Safety will likely determine whether Hartman intended to injure DeBrincat on the play, the principal factor in the length of a potential suspension. Because this is not an in-person hearing, a suspension would be five games or less.

Hartman has been among the few Wild players performing up to expectations this season. His seven goals rank second on the team behind Joel Eriksson Ek, and the natural winger continues to take a heavy amount of faceoffs and is averaging nearly 17 minutes per game. Hartman’s possession numbers are some of the best on the team, boasting a 52.5% Corsi share at even strength through 17 games. His lone absence this season came in the Wild’s Global Series game against the Ottawa Senators last weekend in Stockholm due to illness.

The 29-year-old is in the final season of a three-year contract carrying a bargain-bin cap hit of $1.7MM. He signed a three-year, $12MM extension with the Wild in October and will avoid unrestricted free agency next summer.

Minnesota Wild Activate Alex Goligoski, Assign Mermis And Lettieri To AHL

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After some recent indication that defenseman Alex Goligoski was healthy and ready to return to the Minnesota Wild lineup, the team has officially announced his activation of the LTIR. In order to make cap space to return Goligoski to the lineup, the team also assigned Vinni Lettieri (placed on waivers yesterday) and Dakota Mermis to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

According to CapFriendly, with these moves, Minnesota has a projected cap space of $617K, which translates to roughly $806K in actual salary cap space. With only 21 players on the active roster, two of those being goaltenders, the Wild really only have the capability to bring up one league-minimum salary unless other changes are made.

Goligoski will likely return to a bottom-pairing role, or even become an extra defenseman on the Minnesota blue line, given his level of play and injury history over last season and the current one. He has missed all but two games for the Wild this season, carrying a -3 rating with zero points.

Mermis, on the other hand, has done relatively well filling in the shoes of Goligoski. In 13 games played in his absence, Mermis has two goals and three assists and has shown a skill for blocking shots in his defensive zone. With a $775K salary for the 2023-24 season, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for the Wild to keep Mermis rather than Goligoski down the stretch.

For Lettieri, it was not a major surprise to see his name on the waiver wire yesterday, as he has operated as a depth forward option in the NHL for the last several years. In 11 games for Minnesota this year, Lettieri chipped in two goals but regularly averaged less than 12 minutes of ice time per night, indicating the Wild were not giving him very important minutes.

Minnesota Wild Place Vinni Lettieri On Waivers

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The Minnesota Wild have waived centerman Vinni Lettieri. Lettieri has played in 11 games with the club this season, scoring two goals and recording four penalty minutes. He’s managed these totals while averaging 11 minutes of ice time each night and operating as the Wild’s top faceoff option, with a 58 percent win-rate on draws.

Interestingly, Lettieri was presently serving as the team’s extra forward and was joined in the press box by extra defenseman Dakota Mermis. Mermis cleared waivers on November 18th. Despite that, Mermis remains with the NHL club. Whether Lettieri will also hold onto his NHL roster spot is yet to be seen, although the Wild do have forwards like Nic Petan, Jujhar Khaira, and Jake Lucchini performing well in the minor leagues.

Lettieri is in his first year with the Wild organization, after spending the 2022-23 season with the Boston Bruins’ AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins. The Wild are the fourth franchise that Lettieri has been a part of, originally signing as an undrafted free agent with the New York Rangers following the end of the University of Minnesota’s 2017-18 season. Now 28 years old, Lettieri has totaled 94 career NHL games and scored 20 points. He’s also managed 271 career games and scored 232 points in the minor leagues.

The Wild have had a surprisingly slow start to the season, currently sitting with a 5-8-4 record. They rank second-to-last in the Central Division, largely on the back of an offense with the seventh-fewest goals this season. Lettieri’s waiving doesn’t offer a major change to the lineup, but it could take pressure off of centermen like Frédérick Gaudreau, who is slotting back into the lineup after recently returned from injury.

Alex Goligoski Ready To Return

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Having already fulfilled the requirements of being on LTIR, defenseman for the Minnesota Wild, Alex Goligoski, has not yet made his return to the roster. However, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Goligoski has fully recovered from his lower-body injury, and is ready to get back to game action at any point.

Currently sitting at 31st in the league in GA/G with a 4.00 mark, the Wild could certainly use all the help they can get on the blue line. Much of the blame is associated with the poor play of the team’s netminders up to this point, but an improved defensive presence should shore up some of the issues.

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