#3. Minnesota Wild
Center depth has plagued the Minnesota Wild for a long time, and things didn’t improve any this offseason. A very large part of their problem in that regard is that the Wild only have $1.6 million in cap space, thanks to the whopping $14.7 million in dead cap they have for the next two years from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.
Joel Eriksson Ek led Wild centers in scoring with his 61 points, and none of the other centers surpassed 40 points. Ryan Hartman probably would have hit 40, as he scored 37 in 59 games, and he’ll be due for a new contract next summer. His cap hit is currently just $1.7 million, the lowest of any full-time center on their NHL roster.
The good news is that Frost should only cost between $3-4 million, and the bad news is that the Wild have very little to send back the other way to make it work. Marc-Andre Fleury will probably retire at the end of this season, which would free up $3.5 million, and 38 year old Alex Goligoski also has one year left at $2 million.
It goes without saying that the Wild are in an absolutely terrible position, and without star winger Kirill Kaprizov, they’d probably be just as bad as the Flyers were last season. It is extremely difficult to make the playoffs and compete any year in the NHL, but it is even worse when you’re handicapping yourself by nearly $15 million against the cap. The Wild can absolutely continue to compete if they wish, but it will take a lot of maneuvering for them to be any more than a quarter-finals team.