WILD WEDNESDAY - Buried Again
Buried Again
Well... The Wild might be back in the grave. The win streak was unfortunately short-lived after the Wild lost their last two games against Nashville and Anaheim. Both losses were extremely disappointing as the Wild had a one-goal lead in the third period in both games. Nashville can be slightly excusable, but against Anaheim? C’mon... that is just bad hockey.
To make things hurt a bit more... Nashville’s loss resulted in the 6th consecutive division loss for the Wild, which absolutely cannot happen for a team in the Wild’s current position this season. With these last two losses, the Wild are now seven points out of a playoff spot.
Thoughts Heading into the Trade Deadline
On a more positive note, the Wild acquired 24-year-old defenseman Declan Chisholm off waivers from Winnipeg, who has proven to be a solid offensive D, at least at the AHL level. In the 2022-23 season for the Manitoba Moose, Chisholm posted 43 points (5 goals, 38 assists) in 59 games.
With Winnipeg’s defense staying healthy all season, Chisholm has been a healthy scratch for them practically all season. He has only played six games for Manitoba and two games for Winnipeg this season. Young players need to play, and the Jets owe him more than sitting in the press box as an extra every game, so they took a gamble of sending him down to the minors placing him on the waiver wire. With the Wild, Chisholm will certainly find playing time with Jared Spurgeon out for the season and may even see time on the second power play, replacing Alex Goligoski.
This move gives us an idea of how I think the Wild will proceed this year heading into the trade deadline. Bill Guerin wants and needs this team to improve because he has already been through two head coaches, meaning he is next on the chopping block. If the Wild were wanting to sell at the deadline, there would not be much inventory. With the recent extensions of players like Foligno, Hartman and Zuccarello, not many teams would be willing to take on their contracts, especially for a rental. Really the only players that would be available to trade would be Pat Maroon, Marcus Johansson, Marc-André Fleury and Alex Goligoski as they are under shorter contracts. Maroon, Goligoski and Fleury are under no move clauses, which could be dropped if they were to find the right fit, but the Wild cannot expect a huge return for any of these guys.
So, it sounds like the Wild are going to attain players that can help them this year without having to trade future assets like draft picks. According to Michael Russo, there is a possibility the Wild will sign their 2020 second round draft pick and current KHL player, Marat Khusnutdinov. With the KHL season ending in late February, it opens the possibility of bringing the center and right wing over to play the rest of the season with the Wild to begin his entry-level contract.
Khusnutdinov is not having the most impressive season currently with only 16 points in 40 games, but he is playing for the 18-40 Sochi. He is described as a great and fast skater and already has a bunch of pro experience at the age of 21, so I say let’s bring him over and see what he can do.
Parise to the Avs
After being a free agent all season long, Zach Parise signed with Colorado for a one-year contract worth $825,000. Do not forget the additional $833,333 the Wild are paying him each year through 2029. Cap hell could not come to an end soon enough because of all teams Parise could have signed with, it had to be the dreaded Avalanche. This season and the next are when the Wild are taking the greatest hit on dead cap space at $14.7 million because these are the last two seasons of Parise and Suter’s 13-year contracts.
Got the Munchies
This year’s All-Star jerseys may be the worst I have seen, but then I found out they were designed by Justin Bieber’s Drew House line and well, that makes sense. I just cannot get over how they look like different brands of chips - Kaprizov is going to look like he represents the Cool Ranch Doritos.
The Wild return to the action next Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks where they better end their six-game division losing streak.
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