{"id":490241,"date":"2026-03-07T01:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T01:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/490241\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T01:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T01:42:26","slug":"the-wild-went-from-big-game-hunting-to-punting-at-the-trade-deadline-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/490241\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Went From Big-Game Hunting To Punting At the Trade Deadline – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs the dust settles on the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline, it’s hard to say that the Minnesota Wild didn’t get better. Just by virtue of shipping out David Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek<\/a> and Vinnie Hinostroza<\/a>, the Wild unloaded negative-1.4 Standings Points Above Replacement. Add in Bobby Brink<\/a>, Nick Foligno<\/a>, Jeff Petry<\/a>, Robby Fabbri<\/a>, and Michael McCarron<\/a>, and the net gain of these moves is about 2.5 points in the standings.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThat’s solid work around the margins.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAll players fill in some area of need. Brink gives Minnesota a skilled top-nine winger to play next to Danila Yurov<\/a>. The four forwards all bring some grit and competitiveness to the bottom-six. Petry provides insurance for a team that relies on a 36-year-old Jared Spurgeon<\/a> and 35-year-old Zach Bogosian<\/a> to fill in 36 or so minutes on the right side of the blueline.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe price for McCarron<\/a> aside, it’s all pretty nice work. Until you look at the cavernous hole that exists at the top of the Wild lineup.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wild are done<\/a> at the trade deadline, and they’ll be making their playoff push with Ryan Hartman<\/a> as their top-line center. That didn’t work in 2021-22, when Hartman finished the season with 34 goals and 65 points between Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> and Mats Zuccarello<\/a>. Nor did it work in 2022-23. Or in 2024-25, when he played his way into a top-six role.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe chances it will work out with Hartman scoring a very Victor Rask<\/a>-like 13 goals and 27 points in 58 games feel slim. But the Wild have no options anymore. They justifiably chunked their center depth when they traded<\/a> Marco Rossi<\/a> to land Quinn Hughes<\/a>. Standing pat down the middle was never supposed to be the plan. Hartman, Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a>, and Yurov didn’t feel like the horses that could make a deep playoff run.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA few hours ago, the Wild had options. Vincent Trocheck<\/a> was available from the New York Rangers. While he’s not spectacular, he checked the boxes<\/a> Minnesota needed. Robert Thomas<\/a> would have been<\/a> above the No. 1 Center threshold. Conn Smythe Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly<\/a> might have been gettable.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHell, despite his age and contract<\/a>, Nazem Kadri<\/a> would have brought goal-scoring chops and Bill Guerin-approved grit to the table. Instead, he’s going to the Colorado Avalanche<\/a>, the Wild’s likely Round 2 appointment.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe options now are to stick with Hartman, start transitioning Yurov to the top line, or rely heavily on a loaded-up line of Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, and Boldy to power their way through a postseason series.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tProbably not two, though!\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDepth down the middle is crucial for contending teams, and the Wild are almost certainly going to face two teams that are better down the middle than they are. Sizing up the Wild’s top-four centers against the Avalanche and Dallas Stars, and Minnesota is blown out of the water.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"image.png\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wild could have put themselves on par with Dallas and closed the gap between them and Colorado with O’Reilly (2.9 SPAR), Thomas (2.1), or Trocheck (1.7). Guerin didn’t, and not just because he balked at the prices. He apparently wants to guard against something better coming along later<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Friday’s reaction podcast episode of Worst Seats in the House<\/a>, Michael Russo said, “Billy has started to indicate that he wanted to be patient here and not give up top prospects because he wants to go big-game hunting via trades this summer…. If you’re gonna give up a first-round pick and a prospect for a O’Reilly… or even a [center with term like] Trocheck, if a big guy becomes available this summer, you’re not gonna get him.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a win-now team that has as tough a road to the Cup as anyone in recent memory… this feels like a gut-punch. The Wild got their superstar in a trade in December. Between Hughes, Kaprizov, and Boldy, they might have three of the best 20 or 25 players in hockey today. They are making about $24 million combined, a figure that rises to $32 million next year and to somewhere approaching $40 million the following season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the shoot-your-shot year. Quinn Hughes on a bargain deal<\/a> and in his prime doesn’t fall in your lap every day, but the Wild punted on maximizing it on the off-chance they can strike gold again this summer?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe’re not going to print any accusations of tampering with stars like Auston Matthews<\/a>,\u00a0Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, or Jack Hughes<\/a>. All we’ll say is: the only responsible way to try kicking the can down the acquire-a-center road is if Guerin was tampering hard for one of those guys during the Olympics.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWild fans have waited 25 years for a Stanley Cup, 23 years for a Western Conference Final appearance, 11 years for a playoff series win, and six years for Guerin to build a proper contender around Kaprizov. Overpay or not, the Wild had a chance to round out their squad today and attempt to take their best shot at Dallas and Colorado.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead, they nibbled at the margins and appear ready to tell their fans to just wait until next summer, when someone else they’ll really like becomes available, perhaps. Maybe it will work out, or maybe we’ll look back in five years and bemoan this missed opportunity.\n<\/p>\n

\n Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we’ll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the dust settles on the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline, it’s hard to say that the Minnesota Wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[3201,5,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-490241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-bill-guerin","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116185358082552713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}