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Minnesota Wild Sign Kaapo Kahkonen

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The Minnesota Wild have already experienced huge changes in the crease this offseason, moving Devan Dubnyk to the San Jose Sharks and then committing to a three-year deal with Cam Talbot. While he will be expected to become the team’s starter in the short-term, there is still a prospect who will be challenging for the job down the line.

Kaapo Kahkonen, the reigning AHL Goaltender of the Year, has signed a two-year contract with Minnesota. That will remove the need for salary arbitration, which Kahkonen elected last week. The deal is a two-way contract in 2020-21, a one-way in 2021-22 and will carry an average annual value of $725K.

Kahkonen, 24, was a fourth-round pick by the Wild in 2014 and remains one of the top goaltending prospects in the league. In his sophomore season at the AHL level he posted a .927 save percentage and 2.07 goals-against average, earning him the top honors. He also received five games at the NHL level, where he more than held his own, posting a .913.

When asked about where the Talbot signing leaves Kahkonen, Wild GM Bill Guerin told Michael Russo of The Athletic that it gives them more time for his development and that “the last time we want to do is rush him along.” 

Notably, a two-year deal will actually take Kahkonen to Group VI unrestricted free agency should he not get an NHL opportunity. Of course, the situation is also complicated by the expansion draft, where the Wild will only be able to protect one goaltender. It seems unlikely that Seattle would be targeting Talbot, but if he has a strong season in the Minnesota net the Wild will have to decide whether to leave him or Kahkonen unprotected.

Minnesota Re-Signs Jordan Greenway

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Minnesota has taken care of one of their restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of winger Jordan Greenway to a two-year contract.  The deal carries an AAV of $2.1MM.

The 23-year-old saw his goal total dip from 12 a year ago to just eight this past season but his assist total improved from 12 to 20 in his second full NHL campaign.  Greenway also saw a small uptick in playing time to get past the 14-minute per game mark for the first time while spending time on the second, third, and fourth lines.

He’s likely to play a similar role on what should be a new-look Wild squad next season.  Minnesota has shaken up their forward group with the additions of Nick Bonino, Marcus Johansson, and Nick Bjugstad in trades this offseason so it’s safe to suggest that Greenway will have a new linemate whenever the 2020-21 season gets underway.  He will remain RFA-eligible at the expiration of the deal and will have salary arbitration rights at that time.

With the deal, Minnesota now has all of their NHL restricted free agents under contract for next season with a little under $79.5MM in commitments.  That gives GM Bill Guerin a little bit of wiggle room to work with if a bargain free agent option presents itself or a good in-season cushion for injuries and in-season trade activity.

Minnesota Wild Sign Joseph Cramarossa, Dakota Mermis

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The Minnesota Wild are strengthening their depth, adding a pair of experienced minor leaguers. The team has announced that they have signed forward Joseph Cramarossa and defenseman Dakota Mermis to one-year, two-way contracts. Both players will make the minimum $700K at the NHL level; Mermis will get $250K in the AHL while Cramarossa gets $160K.

Mermis, 26, has the better chance of the two of making an impact on the NHL roster after playing in ten games with the New Jersey Devils this season. A productive, puck-moving defenseman, Mermis has shown an ability to contribute offensively even as a spot starter. Although the Wild have a solid top-six locked in, Mermis should compete for a roster spot as an extra defender.

Cramarossa, 27, has not played in the NHL for a few years, but is a dependable two-way AHL forward. He also is not afraid to play a physical game. Cramarossa won’t likely play a significant role for Minnesota, but could be a fourth-line option in the event of injury and should help with the defensive development of forward prospects down in Iowa.

Cam Talbot To Sign With Minnesota Wild

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The Minnesota Wild are expected to sign Cam Talbot according to Frank Seravalli of TSN. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the contract will be a three-year deal worth a total of $11MM.

While we projected Talbot to land in Minnesota, it wasn’t for nearly as much as the Wild have committed in this deal. The team must obviously feel he can carry the majority of the load for the next few seasons, despite struggling in his last opportunity as a starting goaltender.

In 2017-18 when Talbot was the Oilers full-time starter, leading the league with 67 appearances, he registered a .908 save percentage and lost a league-leading 31 games. It went even further downhill the next year when he had an .893 save percentage with the Oilers before a late-season trade to Philadelphia. While Talbot rebounded this season with the Calgary Flames, he also wasn’t asked to play every game.

Minnesota still have Alex Stalock in the mix for the backup role, while top prospect Kaapo Kahkonen is still in the system. Kahkonen took home the AHL Goaltender of the Year award this season and should eventually push his way onto the NHL roster.

Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Matt Bartkowski, Kyle Rau

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The Minnesota Wild have re-signed two of their depth players, inking Kyle Rau and Matt Bartkowski to new one-year deals. Both contracts are two-way and worth $700K at the NHL level, though Bartkowski will earn a bit more in the minor leagues ($325K to Rau’s $275K salary).

Bartkwoski, 32, has 255 NHL games under his belt but has spent almost the entire last two seasons in the minor leagues with the Iowa Wild. The veteran defenseman scored 18 points in 55 games with Iowa this season after helping the team to their first playoff berth a year ago. That minor league veteran role is likely where he’ll spend all of 2020-21, unless the Minnesota roster is ravaged by injury.

Rau is in much the same boat, despite being nearly five years younger than Bartkowski. The undersized forward has been an excellent offensive weapon for Iowa since arriving in 2017 and scored 43 points in 51 games this season. Though he does have a little bit of NHL experience, his bread is buttered in the AHL where he has developed into one of the league’s most consistent scoring threats.

Neither player should figure much into the Minnesota roster next season, but are valuable depth piece in case of emergency.

Minnesota Wild Issues Qualifying Offers

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The Minnesota Wild have issued qualifying offers to Louis Belpedio, Jordan Greenway, Kaapo Kahkonen and Brennan Menell, keeping them in the organization. Stepan Falkovky, Mat Robson and Hunter Warner all went unqualified, meaning they will become unrestricted free agents on Friday.

The only real surprise in the group is Robson, who was a sought after goaltending prospect out of the University of Minnesota a year ago. After a relatively successful first year in pro hockey, Robson won’t be re-signed by the Wild and instead will have to look for another opportunity elsewhere.

Of course, the Iowa Wild could potentially bring Robson back on an AHL deal, but the 24-year-old netminder can wait to see if there are any NHL offers on Friday.

Nashville, Minnesota Complete Nick Bonino Trade

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Trade winds are blowing strong today. After Matt Murray was moved just before the start of the draft, the Minnesota Wild have acquired Nick Bonino from the Nashville Predators. The Wild will also receive picks 37 and 70 in today’s draft, in exchange for Luke Kunin and pick 101.

Wild GM Bill Guerin was with the Pittsburgh Penguins when Bonino won consecutive Stanley Cups and now he brings him into a new team that is desperate for reliable play down the middle. After trading Eric Staal and letting Mikko Koivu leave in free agency, the Wild have made several moves to address the middle of the ice. Nick Bjugstad and Marcus Johansson have both already been acquired through trade, meaning Minnesota will have a brand new look up front next season.

Kunin is the latest to be moved out, but he’s certainly not in the same decline phase as Koivu and Staal. Instead, the 22-year-old forward was one of Minnesota’s younger players and is coming off his first full season in the NHL. Kunin recorded 15 goals and 31 points in 63 games for the team, but still has some warts in his game at the defensive end.

Bonino is certainly more well-rounded, but he also comes with a price tag of $4.1MM. The Predators were clearly ready to move money out of the middle—they followed the Bonino trade with a buyout of Kyle Turris—and are now set up to be spenders in free agency once again. For the Wild, Bonino only has one year remaining on his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. While the team certainly could re-sign him, the veteran center is now 32 and hasn’t scored 20 goals in a season since 2013-14.

San Jose Sharks Acquire Devan Dubnyk

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In their second trade of the day, the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild have announced that Devan Dubnyk is heading to California. The Wild will receive a 2022 fifth-round pick in return, while the Sharks will receive a 2022 seventh-round selection in addition to the veteran goaltender. Minnesota will also be retaining half of Dubnyk’s remaining $4.33MM cap hit for the 2020-21 season.

The two teams completed an earlier trade that saw Ryan Donato go to San Jose in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick. Sharks GM Doug Wilson released a statement on the latest deal:

Devan has been one of the League’s top goaltenders for many years and after playing so many years in the Western Conference, is someone our hockey staff is very familiar with. As we head into what will surely be a unique season, his acquisition gives us a high-quality and experienced tandem of netminders.

For the Sharks, this means the team will have an experienced tandem, but one that will need drastic performance improvements next season. The team’s starter Martin Jones has now posted back-to-back seasons with an .896 save percentage, allowing 394 goals in 103 appearances. That save percentage was third-worst in the NHL last season among goaltenders with at least 30 appearances, ahead of Pekka Rinne and, unfortunately, Dubnyk. The Minnesota netminder posted a dreadful .890 in his 30 games for the Wild, though does at least have several recent strong seasons to fall back on. In 2018-19, when Jones was still struggling, Dubnyk posted a .913 save percentage in a league-leading 67 appearances for Minnesota.

Amazingly, these two goaltenders finished fifth and sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in 2017. While it seems unlikely they can get back to that level in 2020, it’s not necessarily out of the question. With Jones signed for four more seasons at a $5.75MM cap hit, the Sharks will try everything to get him back to playing at a high level. Dubnyk meanwhile comes in at a relatively inexpensive $2.17MM cap hit after the salary retention, plus is actually set to earn even less in actual salary.

The Sharks also paid a very low price for the acquisition, swapping a pick two rounds up for the chance to see what Dubnyk can do in San Jose. That’s almost nothing, though given the overflowing goaltending market this offseason this acquisition certainly won’t excite many fans.

For Minnesota, moving on from Dubnyk was an obvious move for GM Bill Guerin. The team wants to get younger and provide opportunities for some of their prospects, which could include reigning AHL Goaltender of the Year Kaapo Kahkonen. The Wild also still have Alex Stalock under contract for two seasons at just a $785K cap hit. Kahkonen, who is just 24 and coming off an outstanding season in the AHL in which he posted a .927 save percentage, is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in need of a new deal. Whether he can handle the starting job isn’t clear, but with Dubnyk out of the way, there is a clear path to the net.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minnesota Wild Sign Carson Soucy

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Oct 5: The Soucy contract is now official, with the Wild announcing the three-year, $8.25MM deal.

Oct 2: The Minnesota Wild have been working hard to find a new contract with pending free agent defenseman Carson Soucy, and have finally found some common ground. The team is closing in on a three-year extension that will pay Soucy an average of $2.75MM per year according to Frank Seravalli of TSN. Soucy was set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent next week and had been drawing plenty of interest.

Soucy, 26, is one of those rare Group VI UFAs that actually demands attention on the open market, after playing 55 games for the Wild this season. He was on track to pass the 80-game threshold that would have kept him a restricted free agent this offseason until he suffered an injury and the season was suspended, leaving the Wild vulnerable to his departure.

It’s still impossible to know exactly what the 6’5″ is in the NHL with so little actual experience, but the Wild are betting that his history of success at the collegiate and minor league level will carry over to the big leagues. It certainly seemed to this season, but it’s worth noting that Soucy didn’t play a big role on either the penalty kill or powerplay. He did however look strong when paired with the recently extended Jonas Brodin, suggesting that he could take on a bigger role next season.

Of course, a deal like this will only strengthen the voices that are suggesting the Wild would consider moving Matt Dumba, given how much money is now tied up on the Minnesota blue line. The team already had nearly $28MM locked into Brodin, Dumba, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter, and Greg Pateryn, meaning Soucy would push the group over $30MM. While that’s not completely debilitating, it doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room to improve the rest of the roster, especially when big tickets like Kevin Fiala will need new contracts fairly soon.

Still, getting Soucy under contract now doesn’t necessarily mean even he will be suiting up for the Wild next season. GM Bill Guerin has already shown a willingness to move out pieces when he doesn’t believe they fit any longer and it’s hard to imagine there aren’t some more changes coming in Minnesota.

Minnesota, San Jose Complete Ryan Donato Trade

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11:20am: The deal has been officially announced. Donato will head to San Jose in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick.

10:09am: The Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks have been working on several trades over the last week and are closing in on at least one of them. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the two sides will soon announce a trade that will see Ryan Donato head to the Sharks in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick. Devan Dubnyk, who the two sides have also discussed, will be in a separate trade if they can complete it.

Donato, 24, will be heading to the third NHL organization of his young career after previously being traded from the Boston Bruins in 2019. The 2014 second-round pick made one of the most electrifying debuts of the last few years after starring at Harvard and on the Olympic stage, but hasn’t been able to reproduce that magic on a regular basis. In 130 NHL games he has just 57 points and found himself on the fourth line or in the press box on several occasions this season.

That certainly doesn’t mean he won’t take his game to another level in San Jose, but the Wild have clearly made a decision to change the makeup of their forward group. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin has already traded Eric Staal and let Mikko Koivu depart through free agency, acquiring Marcus Johansson and Nick Bjugstad in the process. Donato and his $1.9MM cap hit will head to San Jose for a draft pick, opening up another roster spot for one of the team’s other young forwards.

San Jose of course is looking for ways to rebound after a brutal 2019-20 campaign that saw them score just 180 goals in 70 games. Timo Meier led the club with 49 points and Evander Kane was the only player who could score consistently on the powerplay. Donato will likely have an opportunity to play up in the lineup for the Sharks, who have their own youth movement happening upfront after watching Joe Pavelski leave last offseason. Melker Karlsson and Joe Thornton—two of the team’s three remaining 30-plus forwards—are both unrestricted free agents that could be looking for new homes come Friday.

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