Offseason checklist for the Minnesota Wild

Let’s just say he did better than that.  A lot better, in fact.  Instead of just holding his own, he became the Wild’s top defenseman pretty quickly.  Not having Jared Spurgeon for most of the year due to injury certainly expedited that ascension but Faber more than earned the extra work as well.  The end result was the 21-year-old leading all Minnesota blueliners with 47 points, 20 more than second-place Jonas Brodin.  He logged nearly 25 minutes a night which not only led all Minnesota players but he had the sixth-highest ATOI in the entire NHL.  He played big minutes on both special teams units as well.  This is not the type of workload you’d expect a rookie who is now barely a year removed from playing college to be carrying.

The fact that he did so while playing on an entry-level deal was huge for the Wild.  It’s great news for next season as well.  But after that, the price tag is going to skyrocket and justifiably so.

The final year of Faber’s contract begins on July 1st, making him eligible to sign an extension at that time.  While there is definitely some risk in handing out what would be one of the richest extensions in franchise history to a player with one full season under his belt, there’s also some risk in not signing him now and then Faber going and having an even better effort in 2024-25 in which case the price would go even higher.

Minnesota’s camp will likely try to use recent deals that Jake Sanderson ($8.05M) and Owen Power ($8.35M) signed as comparables but Faber has been more impactful in his early career which means his camp could push for $9M or more, especially knowing that the deal won’t kick in until 2025-26 when the salary cap could be higher than $90M.  A new agreement doesn’t necessarily have to get done in the coming months but it stands to reason that this will be one of the higher priorities for Guerin.

Free up cap space

The Wild have been operating well below the salary cap for the past several years thanks to the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise back in 2021.  It was an outcome that Guerin knew he was getting into but he wanted to reshape the roster.  While there are still five years left on their respective buyout charges, next season is the last of the whopping charges with each player carrying a dead cap charge of $7.371M.  (That number drops to $833K starting in 2025-26 which is much more manageable although a good chunk of the savings will be going to Faber.)

Guerin was aggressive with signing some veteran players to early extensions last season which has left Minnesota with minimal space to work with this summer assuming none of them are moved.  Per CapFriendly, they have less than $6M left in cap room with a handful of roster spots to fill.  While it’s worth noting that of their pending free agents, none project to command a pricey contract, they also won’t have a lot of flexibility to work with to add to their roster.

Accordingly, finding a way to open up a bit more flexibility would certainly help.  If they move Gustavsson and promote Wallstedt, that would free up $2.825M to work with.  Could they find a home for the final year and $2M left on Marcus Johansson’s deal?  Even flipping Jonathon Merrill’s $1.2M elsewhere and carrying a cheaper seventh defender would give them some extra room.  Every little bit is going to make a difference if they want to try to add an impact piece in the coming months.

Add top-six forward

Speaking of impact pieces, they need one up front.  After being in the top five in scoring in 2021-22, the Wild haven’t cracked the top 20 in that department over the last two seasons.  While Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek gave them a solid 105 goals combined, the rest of their forwards tallied just 108 combined.  That means the secondary scoring wasn’t there consistently enough.

Minnesota will be hoping there will be some internal growth to help bridge some of that gap.  Marco Rossi had a solid rookie year and they’ll be counting on more from him.  They’ll hope that Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov can become capable producers in their first full seasons in North America and if that happens, their offense could get back toward the middle of the pack.

That said, they could certainly benefit from a more proven addition to the lineup.  At a minimum, that player would serve as a bridge piece for some of the youngsters (a group that also includes Danila Yurov who could debut late in the 2024-25 campaign) to have some time to step up.  If some of those younger pieces are ready sooner than later, then the veteran helps create a third scoring line which could only help things.

The good news is that there are plenty of these types of players available in free agency.  Someone like David Perron would fit if they want just a short-term addition to let the youngsters get a bit more time to develop.  Same with Adam Henrique if they want to add down the middle.  If they want to aim higher, Tyler Toffoli, Teuvo Teravainen and Vladimir Tarasenko stand out on the wing while someone like Chandler Stephenson would help at center.

The challenge, of course, is most of the players in this group will take up the majority (if not all of) Minnesota’s current cap space.  That makes it a bit more important to open up some more flexibility on that front before the calendar flips to July and free agency opens up.