Central Division Summer: Minnesota Wild Free Agency
This is going to be an interesting summer in the NHL, and there is going to be a lot of conversation about the Central Division. Over the past week, we’ve looked at the pending free agents for the Blackhawks’ divisional rivals. We started with the Blackhawks’ pending free agents and then moved on to discuss the:
Now let’s turn our attention to the fifth and final playoff team from the Central, the Minnesota Wild.
Minnesota Wild
2015-16 Regular Season: 87 points — 38-33-11 — 5th place in the Central
2015-16 Postseason: eliminated by Dallas in 6 games
2016-17 Salary Commitments: $63,831,087 to 15 NHL players.
Unrestricted Free Agents
David Jones ($4,000,000)
Justin Fontaine ($1,000,000)
Jarret Stoll ($800,000)
Ryan Carter ($625,000)
Chris Porter ($575,000)
Tyson Strachan
Ruslan Fedotenko
Conor Allen
Restricted Free Agents
Jason Zucker ($900,250)
Jordan Schroeder ($600,000)
Zac Dalpe ($600,000)
Matt Dumba ($894,166)
Darcy Kuemper ($1,250,000)
Brody Hoffman
Jared Knight
Raphael Bussieres
Scott Sabourin
Tyler Graovac
Zach Palmquist
Brett Bulmer
It’s almost assumed at this point that they buy out Vanek. Everyone knew that contract was bad before he signed it. Nobody else was negotiating with him and they still have it to him.
Yep, I remember that before the playoffs even started there was talk about that. Buy him out, take a cap hit but still get 5 or 6 million off of the books, and then go after a free agent like Andrew Ladd etc. Certainly seemed like Yeo and then Torchetti didn’t dig him too much. I wonder if Boudreau has any real say in this matter, and what he might think about the deal.
Curious to see how Bruce B does with the new team. Also curious to see how Devin Dubnuyk rebounds after an average season.