The Minnesota Wild are going to have dead cap hits from Ryan Suter and Zach Parise on the books for the next few year, but by buying them out Tuesday, the Wild created a little over $10 million in cap savings this season.
Know who has a $10 million cap hit, is looking for a trade and the Wild have been linked to? Yep, Jack Eichel.
Hmm...
Minnesota's need for a top-six center has been apparent, and Eichel wants out from the Buffalo Sabres. And with the newly-created cap rom, TSN NHL Insider Darren Dreger indicated on "Insider Trading" that the Wild do plan on exploring a move for Eichel.
"The Minnesota Wild would love to add a top line center," Dreger said. "Now, they've been linked with interest to Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres. I believe that the Wild are going to make an offer, a trade offer, on Jack Eichel, but they're also not going to blow their cap space and they're not going to overpay with trade assets. So, it's going to be interesting to see what Guerin does at center ice moving forward."
Minnesota does have two important deals to work out with Kevin Fiala and Calder Trophy winner Kirill Kaprizov, but overall they're in a decent spot cap-wise. Bringing in Eichel, which would put Joel Eriksson Ek as the second line center, would make for a pretty dynamic 1-2 punch up the middle.
The Wild have an exciting, young team, and trading for Eichel could make them a legitimate threat in the Western Conference. But that is a big cap hit to bring in, so the Wild have a lot of thinking to do about how they want to use that space.
