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Dumba A 'Wildcard' For Returning For The Start Of The Playoffs

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The availability for Wild defenseman Mathew Dumba heading into the playoffs appears to be uncertain.  Michael Russo of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that head coach Dean Evason is calling the blueliner a “wildcard” in terms of his potential readiness for their opening game against St. Louis.  In particular, Dumba hasn’t been shooting the puck well.  He’d be a big loss for them if he can’t start in the postseason with the 27-year-old logging over 23 minutes a game this season.

Meanwhile, the news is better for winger Jordan Greenway.  While he has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game in Nashville, Evason indicated that Greenway is ahead of Dumba in his recovery which suggests he may be able to return to the Wild’s lineup next week.  The 25-year-old has 23 points in 59 games this season.

Marc-Andre Fleury Plans To Return Next Season

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With Marc-Andre Fleury’s three-year, $21MM contract extension expiring this offseason, many wondered if the 37-year-old netminder would return to NHL ice for 2022-23, especially after his offseason trade to the Chicago Blackhawks and ensuing retirement rumors. The answer to that query appears to be yes, with Fleury saying today he’d “like to play another season” after this one.

Fleury had a rough start to the season in Chicago, putting up one of the league’s worst goaltending performances early on behind a shoddy defense. But as the defense improved under new head coach Derek King, so did he, to the point where he boasted a .908 save percentage and fetched a conditional first-round pick at the Trade Deadline from the Minnesota Wild. He’s kept his solid play going since the trade, posting a .921 save percentage and saving 4.45 goals above average so far in a Wild uniform (according to Natural Stat Trick).

He is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, however, and with Minnesota’s impending severe cap crunch, many contending teams are likely to be in a position to offer him more money. It’s not impossible to rule out the option of Fleury taking a discount to stay in the Twin Cities, though, especially if he helps catapult the team to a deep playoff run.

If Fleury does join a fifth NHL team though, it would be his fourth in just the past three seasons, a high level of movement for the future Hall-of-Famer considering he spent the first 13 years of his career in Pittsburgh. Another season as a starter would give him a fighting chance at 1,000 NHL games, a mark achieved only by three other goalies in NHL history — Martin Brodeur (1,266), Roberto Luongo (1,044), and Patrick Roy (1,029). He currently sits at 935 games played, and with a few more starts down the stretch this season, he’d like need 55-60 games worth of action next year to hit the millennium mark.

One team likely to make a huge pitch for Fleury is the Colorado Avalanche, who were linked to him multiple times throughout the season but ended up pulling out with Darcy Kuemper regaining his form. Kuemper is a pending unrestricted free agent, though, and if the two can’t agree to an extension, expect the Avalanche to once again be connected to ’Flower.’

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Can Wild Afford To Keep Fiala; Can They Afford To Lose Him?

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  • Michael Russo of The Athletic outlines (subscription link) the tough decision the Wild are facing this summer.  Their cap situation gets a lot worse with the increased dead cap charges on the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts and it appears they’ll be facing a situation where either winger Kevin Fiala or defenseman Mathew Dumba get traded.  Minnesota wasn’t able to agree to a long-term deal with Fiala last summer and wound up taking him to salary arbitration.  He has one year of RFA eligibility remaining and with 73 points in 75 games, he’ll be eyeing a big raise on his $5.1MM price tag while making it very difficult to justify moving him.  Dumba is signed through next season at $6MM and would certainly have a strong trade market if they opted to move him to keep Fiala in the fold.

Marcus Foligno Placed In COVID Protocol

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The Minnesota Wild have placed Marcus Foligno into the league’s COVID-19 protocol, ruling him out for the next few days. With him unavailable, the team has recalled Mitchell Chaffee from the AHL. Though the NHL no longer tests daily, with the Wild heading to Montreal and then back to the U.S., the entire traveling party would have undergone testing.

Foligno, 30, in the midst of a career year, with 22 goals and 39 points in 71 appearances for the Wild. The always-excellent defensive forward has turned up his offensive game with an incredible 23.7% shooting percentage and has found amazing chemistry with center Joel Eriksson Ek. He will now miss at least five days, meaning tomorrow’s match against the Canadiens, Thursday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, and potentially Friday’s match against the Seattle Kraken.

As Michael Russo of The Athletic points out though, this isn’t necessarily coming at a terrible time. Foligno had been dealing with some minor injuries, and could use the time to rest and recover, if his symptoms are not too dramatic. With the Wild firmly in a Central Division playoff spot–ten points ahead of both the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators–getting Foligno back to full health before the postseason is obviously a priority.

For Chaffee, it could represent his first real opportunity in the NHL. Though he has been recalled a few times in the past, the 24-year-old forward has never actually suited up for a game with Minnesota, and has to this point only played in the AHL. He’s been great for the Iowa Wild, with 22 goals and 37 points in 45 games this season, but will be facing an entirely new test should he enter the NHL lineup in the coming days.

Tyson Jost, Jon Merrill Out; Jordan Greenway, Matt Dumba Closer To Returning

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There was good news and bad news today for the St. Louis Blues. The good news was the team clinched a playoff spot with a 6-5 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild. The bad news was defenseman Nick Leddy taking a high stick near his eye, causing him to leave the game. The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford spoke to Blues’ Head Coach Craig Berube, who said that the incident had blurred Leddy’s vision and he is not expected to play tomorrow against the Nashville Predators.

  • The Athletic’s Michael Russo provided several updates on the Minnesota Wild, per Head Coach Dean Evason. Most notably, Tyson Jost, who took a big hit from Pavel Buchnevich earlier today, will not play tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks for precautionary reasons. Evason also notes that defenseman Jon Merrill is still out of the lineup going forward, having not played since March 31st with an upper-body injury. In more positive news for the Wild, Evason says that forward Jordan Greenway has started skating and star defenseman Mathew Dumba is getting closer to return as well.

Snapshots: Nash, Predators, Deslauriers

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The oft-overlooked IIHF Men’s World Championship is drawing near, and Hockey Canada has added another former player and budding management star to the fold. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the organization has added Rick Nash as an assistant general manager, supplementing Shane Doan. Nash has three seasons of managerial experience now, all in his former stomping grounds in Columbus. After serving two seasons (2019-20 and 2020-21) as a special assistant to the general manager, he was named director of player development this season in addition to having his number retired by the organization. The tournament begins on May 13th.

Elsewhere from the NHL tonight:

  • Injury trouble continues for the Nashville Predators as they try to solidify a Wild Card spot. Defenseman Mark Borowiecki is again marred by injury, with an upper-body ailment holding him out tonight, as well as Matt Luff, who sits with a non-COVID illness. Both have been used sparingly when in the lineup this season, but Borowiecki is still a valuable role player who’s still managed to get into 47 games this year despite injury. Luff, after tearing up the AHL with 31 points in 30 games, has six points in 21 games with the Predators.
  • Instant fan-favorite Nicolas Deslauriers returns to the Minnesota Wild tonight after missing the team’s last two games. Deslauriers is averaging a penalty minute per game during his 10-game tenure in Minnesota, and he’s contributed two goals as well. The 31-year-old has looked like a natural fit in the team’s bottom-six forward group, adding a physical edge to an already gritty group of forwards.

Ryan Hartman Fined For Unsportsmanlike Conduct

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  • Ryan Hartman has earned a $4,250 fine for his gesture toward Evander Kane in last night’s game between the Minnesota Wild and Edmonton Oilers. The league has listed the fine as unsportsmanlike conduct, and Hartman told reporters last night including Michael Russo of The Athletic that a fine would be “well worth it.” The Wild would end up winning the game 5-1 and won’t meet again during the regular season.

Minnesota Hoping To Sign Jesper Wallstedt Soon

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  • The Minnesota Wild are hoping to sign top goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt soon, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic, in order to have him play in North America next season. The 19-year-old was picked 20th overall in 2021 and posted a .917 save percentage in 22 appearances for Lulea HF in Sweden this season. The team is into the semi-finals meaning a contract will have to wait at least a little while, though veteran netminder Joel Lassinantti has started all five playoff games to this point.

Matt Boldy And Jon Merrill Could Return Sunday

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Vegas could get a key player back for tomorrow’s contest against Arizona as Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays that winger Max Pacioretty is listed as a game-time decision.  The veteran has missed nearly a month with an undisclosed injury, continuing what has been a tough year on the injury front as he has been limited to just 29 games.  However, the 33-year-old has been quite productive when he has been in the lineup as he has 15 goals and 14 assists.  With the Golden Knights sitting two points out of the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference heading into Friday’s slate of games, Pacioretty would undoubtedly give them a big boost as they look to get into the postseason.

  • The Wild could get a pair of players back for Sunday’s game against Los Angeles as Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Jon Merrill and winger Matt Boldy could both be back. Both players suffered upper-body injuries at the end of March and while Merrill has seen his role scaled back a little bit lately, Boldy has played a crucial role for Minnesota since being recalled in January, collecting 27 points in 35 games.
  • Stars defenseman Esa Lindell plus wingers Jacob Peterson and Denis Gurianov have all been upgraded to game-time decisions for their game on Saturday against New Jersey, notes Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News. Each player has missed the last three games, Lindell due to an upper-body injury, Peterson a lower-body injury, and Gurianov an illness.  Dallas has a two-point lead on Vegas for the final Wild Card spot in the West and getting those three back will only help their cause.

Minnesota Wild Extend Alex Goligoski

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March 30: The contract is now official. A two-year deal that will carry a cap hit of $2MM.

March 29: When the Minnesota Wild signed Alex Goligoski to a one-year, $5MM contract in the offseason, it came with the expectation that the team would offer him another extension at a much-reduced cost. That would allow the team to spend a little bit more this season when they have some extra cap space, and less in the coming years when they have to deal with hefty buyout penalties due to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

That’s exactly what is about to happen, as Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports the two sides will soon announce a two-year extension. Michael Russo of The Athletic confirms the deal, and adds that it will carry an average annual value of $2MM.

If seen as a three-year, $9MM deal, it certainly makes sense from the Minnesota side of things, as they will pay a little bit less in the tight 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. But Goligoski has also been a healthy scratch of late after the acquisition of Jacob Middleton at the deadline and will turn 37 this summer. That means this extension comes with some risk, even if it does carry a relatively low cap hit.

The veteran defenseman has been asked to do a lot less this year than usual, averaging just 19 minutes a night for the Wild, a sharp drop from the 23 he saw in Arizona the last two seasons. In fact, over the first 900+ games he played before coming to Minnesota, Goligoski averaged 22:39, while racking up 429 points in the process. That puck-moving ability hasn’t left him just yet, as his offensive performance has still been strong for the Wild with 28 points in 58 games, which is actually tied for the team lead among defensemen, but Goligoski isn’t the kind of do-it-all option he once was.

Still, as a solid contributor on a good team, there’s reason to believe this might still end up a win for Minnesota. They have phenomenal depth on the blueline for this season and even if Goligoski takes a step back in the coming years, his cap hit is low enough that it shouldn’t drastically affect the team’s fortunes.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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