Minnesota Wild Still Looking To Acquire Center

There are quite a few gold medal connections in the State of Hockey, add a chance to make history for the 25-year-old franchise in bringing the Stanley Cup to Minnesota. Larkin has strong connections with Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, and Brock Faber, all of whom were key parts of bringing the U.S. the gold in Milan. Guerin has also demonstrated his yearning to build the Wild’s first cup-winning team, emerging victorious in the sweepstakes for Hughes, whom he pulled out from Vancouver.

Minnesota saw difficulties in its center depth this past playoffs, and adding any top-six would prove worthwhile to supplement the services of Joel Eriksson Ek down the middle. The Wild have offered a big package to send Steve Yzerman‘s way, but apparently, Detroit is taking its time to see if an agreement is fitting for these two teams. Perhaps a goalie swap could occur here, too, if Minnesota wanted to exchange one of its two goaltenders, either Filip Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt, for Sebastian Cossa.

If they can’t snag him, there are secondary options Minnesota could settle for. Russo provides a few options given Minnesota’s window; Vincent Trocheck is a good bet to take. Guerin notably ran Team USA at the Olympics, and Trocheck’s reliability proved formidable on that team’s path to victory. Trocheck carries three years remaining on a contract with a $5.625 million cap hit, kills penalties, has a great presence at the faceoff dot, and finished his 2025-26 season scoring 53 points in 67 games played with the New York Rangers.

Among other options, Boston is taking calls on Pavel Zacha, but the price is high, and they’d prefer to keep him long-term. Nico Hischier appears to be on track to remain in New Jersey. Do you take a gamble on Jesperi Kotkaniemi or the large contract of Elias Pettersson? The younger options that have circled like Mason McTavish and Shane Wright would be upside worthy considerations, but the Wild, who are on the cusp of a conference final, need players who have ‘been there, done that’ so to speak.

Along with a depleted draft cupboard in 2026, Guerin’s focus must be on figuring out Mats Zuccarello’s future as well as sitting down with Quinn Hughes and John Hynes on their futures, with both requiring extensions soon. It’s no surprise that Minnesota checked in on Brady Tkachuk; the Wild reportedly had an offer on the table for him as he had Minnesota as one of four preferred destinations, but with the left wing headed to Florida, eyes turn back towards the team’s number one need, a middle man.

The team’s depth chart down the middle highlights Ryan Hartman on the last year of a three-year, $4MM AAV contract, Joel Eriksson Ek with two-years at $5.25MM, and Michael McCarron, who the Wild recently inked to a six-year, $3,333,333 AAV deal. Adding any of those big names listed above to this group would help put Minnesota in a tier above.

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