Wild To Re-Sign Nick Foligno, Zach Bogosian

The Minnesota Wild are retaining a few of their veteran depth pieces for next season. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Wild are expected to re-sign forward Nick Foligno and defenseman Zach Bogosian before free agency begins.

Foligno, 38, joined Minnesota at the trade deadline in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks. Captain of the Blackhawks at the time, Foligno had registered three goals and 11 points in 37 games with Chicago while dealing with some injury concerns. A year before, he had scored 15 goals and 35 points in 78 games with a -11 rating.

Expectedly, he didn’t have much production with the Wild. In 17 games to close out the regular season, Foligno contributed one goal and four points while averaging 12:19 of ice time per game. Still, he scored one goal and three points for Minnesota in 11 postseason games, and offered a lot of physicality to the team’s bottom-six.

Regardless of his offensive contributions, Foligno can now play with his younger brother, Marcus Foligno, over the course of an entire season, and have a much better chance at the Stanley Cup than he did with the Blackhawks.

Meanwhile, unlike Foligno, Bogosian has had a much longer tenure with the Wild. After a mid-season trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2023-24 campaign, the former third-overall pick of the 2008 NHL Draft has been with Minnesota.

At this stage of his career, Bogosian is primarily a depth option on the right side of the defense. Throughout the past two years, the 38-year-old rearguard has scored six goals and 22 points in 122 games with a +2 rating, averaging 15:23 of ice time per game. Additionally, over that same stretch, Bogosian has delivered 128 hits and blocked 117 shots.

Similar to Foligno, Bogosian won’t offer a lot to the Wild on the stat sheet, but can be a steady veteran presence to plug into the lineup in a pinch. Assuming each is being signed to a one-year deal, it could very well be the last season for each of the long-tenured veterans.