Mats Zuccarello headed to free agency

The Minnesota Wild have a key veteran forward who wants to test the NHL’s free-agent waters.

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Mats Zuccarello is going to market.

Zuccarello will turn 39 when he hits his next NHL training camp. Whichever team signs him, they wouldn’t require much term, but should prepare to have a chunk of cap space to fit him in. Last season, he scored 54 points in 59 games, 39 being assists in Minnesota on a $4.215M cap hit; his 82-game point pace was at 75. The Oslo native added nine points in eight games played during the Wild’s playoff run.

If acquired, he would ideally be a producer but also a leader to the likes of the younger players on a team’s roster, as Kirill Kaprizov‘s linemate, he is credited as a positive influence for the Russian star forward. Wild GM Bill Guerin was open about wanting him back, but the question came down to whether he would take a short-term contract with lesser guaranteed money or a bonus-focused deal.

One of nine Norwegians to skate on NHL ice, Zuccarello has played nine seasons with the New York Rangers and was the first from Norway to skate in the Stanley Cup Final. He signed his entry-level deal there and a few one-year extensions (four to be exact) before signing a four-year contract, making $4.5M AAV through 2019. He averaged 56 points during a span of five seasons from 2013-14 through 2017-18, with an NHL career best of 26 goals and 61 points in 2015-16. After being dealt to the Dallas Stars in the final year of that contract, he then signed in Minnesota, where he spent the last seven campaigns on two contracts. Before his current deal that is up soon, he earned $6M AAV from 2019 to 2025.

Throughout his career, Zuccarello demonstrated the same attributes that have made him a coveted winger, and it displays wherever he goes. Part of what made him and Kaprizov so successful in Minnesota was his passing ability that generates offense. Five seasons in the league, he’s finished with above 40 assists; only three have seen above 20 goals scored in his 16 years as an NHLer. His playmaking effectiveness goes down in Wild history as the fastest player to 200 assists, taking 70 games fewer (330) to get that mark than Mikko Koivu (400). In 963 NHL games, he’s amassed 744 points.