Minnesota Wild Predicted to Trade for Rickard Rakell

As the Pittsburgh Penguins gauge the NHL for potential trade partners, the ultimate goal is to land future assets while getting younger. Pittsburgh is firmly entering a rebuild, and it has the front office discussing some of its veteran players with teams.

One of those is wing Rickard Rakell, who has seen his name be placed in all sorts of rumors of late. Rakell could be a strong addition for any team, and it does seem like the Penguins could move him before the season starts.

NHL writer Adam Gretz of Bleacher Report put together a list of teams that could land Rakell in a trade. The Minnesota Wild were listed, and they make sense as trade partners for Pittsburgh to consider.

"The Wild kind of fizzled in the second half last season, but a lot of that was due to some significant injuries at both forward and defense. When they were healthy in the first half of the season, they were one of the best teams in the Western Conference. They have the potential to be that again with better health luck," Gretz wrote.

Minnesota has a deep farm system that could entice the Penguins to make a deal with them. Pittsburgh could land some strong future assets, while the Wild grabs one of the better players available this summer.

Rakell is coming off a career-high season with the Penguins that saw him post 35 goals and 35 assists over 81 games played. His skill set could be very useful for the Wild as they try to take that next step in the Western Conference.

Putting him into a lineup with Kirill Kaprizov and Marco Rossi could allow Minnesota to have one of the better offensive units in the entire NHL. Rakell has seemed to get better as his career has gone on, and this could be a perfect landing spot.