The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
VANCOUVER — With Friday’s 2 p.m. CT trade deadline a little more than 24 hours away, there’s a good bet you won’t have to stay pressed to your phone to see what the Minnesota Wild are up to like you did the past two deadlines.
In 2023, relatively good health throughout the season plus the ability to shed cap space at the start of the season by trading Dmitry Kulikov and losing Tyson Jost via waivers allowed the Wild to “buy” in advance of and at the deadline, adding Gustav Nyquist, Marcus Johansson, John Klingberg and Oskar Sundqvist.
In 2024, amid a season wrought with poor health and goaltending, the Wild knew they’d be playoff outsiders for only the second time since 2012 and went into “sell” mode, dealing Brandon Duhaime, Connor Dewar and Pat Maroon in advance of and at the deadline.
This time?
After re-acquiring Nyquist and plucking Vinnie Hinostroza off waivers, general manager Bill Guerin would love to further help a team that has overcome immense adversity this season and appears destined to return to the playoffs. But the Wild’s early-season hope to accrue cap space lasted about two games when injuries hit Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek, then Johansson, signaling a never-ending list of injuries in the months since. In the cases of Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin, they’ve been on the shelf several times and are again week-to-week, while star Kirill Kaprizov has missed every game but three since Dec. 23.
On Dec. 12, when Jake Middleton blocked an Evan Bouchard shot with his hand on his first shift against the Edmonton Oilers, the Wild’s accrual strategy was destroyed. To consistently field a playable roster from that juncture on, the Wild have had no choice but to place, in a row, Middleton, Spurgeon, Jakub Lauko, Brodin and now Kaprizov on long-term injured reserve.
That has left the Wild with effectively zero cap space at the deadline if Guerin is continuing to operate as if Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Brodin will be back at some point in the regular season’s final 20 games.
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Things are so tight that even with the Predators retaining half of Nyquist’s remaining cap hit, Marat Khusnutdinov and Liam Ohgren had to lose their gigs in the NHL. Nyquist needed Ohgren’s roster spot, and in order for the Wild to be cap compliant if Kaprizov returns in the regular season, Khusnutdinov needed to be reassigned for the first time in his NHL career.
So with the deadline fast approaching, here’s what we’re hearing:
Wild keeping tabs on Nelson, others
As of Thursday midday, teams were still awaiting clarity from Islanders boss Lou Lamoriello if Nelson was even available.
The Islanders are only four points out of a playoff spot, although they’d have to leap five teams to get into the East’s top eight. But Lamoriello loves Nelson. He appears to be ready to go down to the wire trying to extend his deal, and even if he can’t, Lamoriello has a history of letting pending free agents walk for nothing.
As we just laid out, it’s hard to fathom how the Wild could squeeze Nelson under the cap even if Lamoriello makes him available.
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However, this, again, is only if nothing has changed this week and Guerin still considers Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Brodin possibilities to return this regular season.
Guerin may say he expects Kaprizov back by the end of the regular season, but it’s going to be awfully close. Just do the math.
As of Thursday, Kaprizov still hasn’t started skating, and it sounds like he’s not going to until the final week of March when the Wild have 10 to 12 games left. The Wild have seven games in April to close out the regular season with very few practices on the schedule. But Kaprizov would need a lot of skates to get back into game shape, rediscover his hands and legs in game-like situations and test his surgically repaired injury to even see if he can return.
Kirill Kaprizov has missed every game but three since Dec. 23 and still hasn’t resumed skating. (Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
Do the Wild change their minds in the next 24 hours and hold him out until the playoffs?
As of now, there has been no indication they plan to.
Eriksson Ek is also dealing with a broken bone in his leg. The Wild aren’t sure when it occurred, with coach John Hynes saying there was no “incident” and it may be a “usage injury.”
“He came back from the 4 Nations, he was fine, he practiced, he played (against Detroit),” Hynes said.
Eriksson Ek then practiced after playing the Red Wings, came off the ice and could barely walk.
So his return date is also up in the air, as is Brodin’s. The veteran defenseman had just gotten back from a broken foot when he was hurt last week against the Colorado Avalanche blocking Martin Necas’ shot.
If the Wild have determined any of these players won’t return until the playoffs, that could change the calculus on everything Friday. They would suddenly be swimming in cap space and could theoretically go after Nelson, Brock Boeser and/or anybody else they think could provide a boost.
The big question is whether they’d want to give up the assets even if this was the case.
Remember, for four years, the owner, the players, the coaches, the management, the account executives tasked with selling tickets and especially the fans and beat writers have waited patiently for the painful Zach Parise-Ryan Suter buyout hits to mostly come off the books.
On July 1, we’ll all finally never have to use the term “$14.7 million in dead cap space” again.
Several teams are believed to be pursuing Nelson, including the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs. This could up the price dramatically, and the Wild no longer have their 2025 first-round pick — and Guerin said Sunday, “I’d rather not” and “I don’t think I will” trade their 2026 first-round pick.
So if that remains the case, in order for the Wild to compete with the packages others are putting forth for Nelson, they’d probably have to trade a prospect or two.
That makes little sense for a player the Wild would likely try to sign July 1.
For four years, everybody’s waited for this summer, so Guerin would probably prefer to not trade away a bunch of assets now and instead have an arsenal of assets at his disposal if he wants to make trades in the offseason.
So, in other words, even if things have changed and the Wild start acting Friday like they think one of their three injured players won’t be back until the playoffs, it may make sense to go after more reasonable options in terms of assets.
One intriguing name is former Wild center Nico Sturm, who won the Cup with the Avalanche, is a solid penalty killer and is a 62.7 percent faceoff guy this season (though in only 279 draws). As you’re well aware, the Wild stink on the PK and struggle in the circle.
Sturm is also somehow only a minus-4 on the worst defensive team in the NHL.
The risk with waiting on Nelson until summer, though?
If a contender trades for him, he could be enticed to re-sign there.
Nelson will be 34 in October. As intrigued as he may be by the idea of finishing his career at home in Minnesota, he also wants to end his career on a perennial contender and any team that acquires him could probably provide that over the term of his next and possibly last deal.
Dollar-in, dollar-out trades
If Guerin is operating like he said he was last weekend — with little flexibility because nobody will end up on LTIR to end the season — a dollar-in, dollar-out trade will be difficult, too.
With Brodin hurt, it’s hard to see trading pending restricted free agent Declan Chisholm ($1 million), who’s playing on the second pair right now, pending unrestricted free agent Jon Merrill ($1.2 million) or Zach Bogosian (one year left at $1.25 million).
Any trade of a defenseman would require one coming back in some capacity.
And up front, there’s not much that can be done.
With Eriksson Ek hurt, Guerin is not about to trade Freddy Gaudreau, who has quietly scored 14 goals and is playing his best hockey of the season. Plus, he has a 15-team no-trade clause. That’d be more of a summer type trade.
Freddy Gaudreau has become indispensable because of injuries. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
And most everybody else either has complete no-trade (Johansson) or no-move (Ryan Hartman, etc.) protection or are players Guerin would never trade.
One player who could potentially move is Lauko, a pending RFA who makes only $787,500. With his hip and groin issues, it’s hard to see the Wild re-signing him after the season. However, if he’s able to play the rest of the season, he’s quite handy and is the type of fast, physical player who could contribute in the playoffs.
Pending UFA Devin Shore, who makes the league minimum $775,000 and will play his 40th game Friday against the Canucks, is also somebody Guerin has liked and may be in line for a one- or two-year extension this summer.
Other than that, there are not many options, although perhaps we see some AHL Iowa players moved like David Spacek, who fell down the right-shot depth chart when Minnesota acquired David Jiricek from Columbus.
It’ll also be interesting to watch if the Wild are willing to trade Khusnutdinov if they can recoup some draft capital. There’s a lot of factors as to whether he can come up until the playoffs even if the Wild traded a player off their roster like Lauko. One reason is the Wild want to save cap space to sign Zeev Buium when his sophomore season at University of Denver ends.
Odds and ends
No Wild player is expected to have his contract extended by Friday.
The Wild and Marco Rossi’s agent talked earlier this winter, but there’s nothing close and they’ll likely begin talking again after the playoffs to see if a deal can be struck for the pending RFA. Rossi, 23, has scored 21 goals and 51 points in 62 games, and on a team that’s had so many players hurt, he hasn’t missed a game in each of his first two full seasons.
The Wild will likely reassign and immediately recall players like Shore, Brendan Gaunce and Jiricek on Friday to make sure they can be assigned to Iowa at any point after the trade deadline. If so, that would count as three of the Wild’s four non-emergency, post-deadline recalls.
(Top photo of Kirill Kaprizov and Brock Nelson: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
