Minnesota Wild Sign Max Shabanov

According to a team announcement, the Minnesota Wild have signed forward Max Shabanov to a one-year, $1.6MM contract for the 2026-27 season. Shabanov became an unrestricted free agent yesterday after the New York Islanders chose not to tender him a qualifying offer.

Shabanov, 25, joins the Wild after finishing his rookie season with the Islanders. Primarily playing in New York’s middle six, Shabanov finished with five goals and 18 points in 44 games with a -5 rating, averaging 13:41 of ice time per game.

The risk of signing Shabanov is the injury concern. He dealt with multiple different multi-game injuries, causing him to miss nearly half of the year with the Islanders. Still, given his relatively low salary, it’s not a very large gamble by Minnesota.

If he can stay healthy, there is some upside to Shabanov’s game. He’s still relatively young and is coming off an impressive stretch in Russia. Throughout the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, playing for the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk, Shabanov scored 48 goals and 117 points in 129 games. That kind of offense isn’t common for players in their mid-20s.

Unless more salary is moved out, Shabanov’s signing is likely one of the last moves the Wild will make in their quiet offseason. After acquiring Blake Coleman and Olli Määttä from the Calgary Flames this morning, Minnesota will have roughly $795K in salary cap space after registering Shabanov’s contract.