What’s the Wild’s next big move after signing Faber? – Minnesota Wild

Last month, the Minnesota Wild secured a crucial part of their future by signing Brock Faber to an 8-year, $68 million contract. With the team’s homegrown feel-good machine in place, the Wild have most of their key players locked in for the long-awaited and highly anticipated 2025-26 season.

Yes, this is the same 2025-26 season that Wild fans have been looking forward to since the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter severance packages. The same 2025-26 season in which the Wild will recoup over $13 million in salary cap space and escape their self-inflicted financial hell. Wild fans had envisioned the same 2025-26 season for the team entering the free agent market with plenty of money and ready to make moves to support a serious run at the Stanley Cup.

But the Wild are only one season away from financial independence. What was supposed to be an exciting time has been thwarted once again thanks to a series of contract extensions for veterans. Bill Guerin seems to be in his Oprah era and offers generous contracts to any interested audience. And it is easy to lose track of how You get $4 million!, you get $7 million! and $4.5 million for the shirtless man in the back! ultimately influence the overall picture.

So what’s the current situation? How much of the $13 million has already been spent? Will there be another chance to sign a big free agent? Is everything ruined before it even started?!

Okay, let’s take a deep breath together, heed the wisdom of the modern philosopher and outstanding thinker Lil Jon and repeat it again. And now let’s stop and wiggle it See what we can do to answer some of these questions.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared on a recent episode of his podcast “32 Thoughts” that the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season will be “just under $93 million.” That’s an increase of nearly $5 million from last season’s $88 million cap. To round the numbers, we’ll use $92.5 million as the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season. All contract numbers indicate the projected 2025-26 salary cap for the named player.

Strikers (9):

Kirill Kaprizov ($9 million)
Matt Boldy ($7 million)
Joel Eriksson Ek ($5.25 million)
Mats Zuccarello ($4.13 million)
Marcus Foligno ($4 million)
Ryan Hartman ($4 million)
Yakov Trenin (3.5 million USD)
Freddy Gaudreau ($2.1 million)
Liam Öhgren (0.89 million)

Defense (5):

Brock Faber ($8.5 million)
Jared Spurgeon ($7.58 million)
Jonas Brodin ($6 million)
Jake Middleton ($4.35 million)
Zach Bogosian ($1.25 million)

Goalkeeper (1):

Filip Gustavsson ($3.75 million)

Severance payments: 1.67 million USD

Salary cap 2025-26: ~72.95 million USD

That’s 15 players under contract on a 23-man roster, leaving Minnesota with just under $20 million to fill the final eight roster spots. That doesn’t include pending restricted free agents Marco Rossi, Jesper Wallstedt, Marat Khusnutdinov or Jakub Lauko, nor pending UFAs like Declan Chisholm. If any of them return, that money will be used up, but Minnesota will have one less roster spot to fill.

But $19.5 million for eight roster spots is not the amount many Wild fans were expecting from Minnesota with a large salary advantage. And while it’s safe to assume Minnesota will have to sign at least one, maybe two players via trade or free agency to achieve its goal of a long Cup run, the team is still in a much better position than its salary expectations would suggest thanks to smart selection.

Depending on who you ask, the Wild’s talent pool is somewhere between 5th and 11th. Regardless of what the notoriously masochistic fan base tells you, that’s undeniably solid for a team that has only drafted in the top 10 once in the last 12 years.

That also means the Wild have several real, salary-friendly solutions, some of whom are becoming NHL-ready at just the right time. So who’s ready to fill those vacancies on the 2025-26 roster? Let’s take a look at who’s waiting in the wings.

It’s looking more and more like the Wild will ultimately return all of their promising non-Liam Öhgren forwards, including Riley Heidt, to their respective teams this season, if only because there’s no opportunity for significant playing time.

Next summer things might look different.

At the very least, Guerin will likely be tasked with finding a roster spot for highly anticipated KHL star Danila Yurov, whom the Wild have yet to sign. Yurov shined as a 20-year-old center in the KHL last season and brings the dynamic, high-level skillset Minnesota desperately needs in the midfield. After playing more than three professional seasons by this time next year, we expect Yurov to be NHL-ready, offering the Wild a plug-and-play solution at an entry-level price.

This brings us back to the uncertainty surrounding the future of Rossi and Khusnutdinov. Rossi, who is the subject of frequent transfer rumors, and Khusnutdinov are both below-average, left-shot centers with expiring contracts. They are likely competing for the same spot on the roster.

If we believe Rossi’s trajectory — and we have no real reason not to believe in the All-Rookie team member — it would be baffling if the Wild didn’t capitalize on the value proposition he offers. We’ll see what Khusnutdinov brings in his first full NHL season, but all signs point to this being an intriguing story for Minnesota.

The Wild have no obvious internal solutions on the backend, aside from one major exception: Zeev Buium (uncontracted). Maybe you’ve heard of him? After a stunning 50-point season in Denver, Guerin will no doubt be itching to put the 2024 national champion and first-team All-American in a Wild jersey for the 2025-26 season.

The most exciting developments in Minnesota are almost certainly in the goal crease. It’s all but certain that we’ll see Wallstedt, who the Wild expect to be their full-time franchise goalie in St. Paul in 2025-26. After a disappointing season, all eyes will be on Gustavsson to find the form that earned him his $3.75 million contract. However, a good start from Gustavsson could just as easily be his ticket out of town and clear the net for Wallstedt to become the Wild’s No. 1 goalie.

A vacancy in St. Paul also offers undrafted free agent and hometown home slugger Samuel Hlavaj ($875,000) a chance to show if he’s capable of bigger things. Hlavaj has impressed playing for Slovakia at the last two World Championships and could be considered the Wild’s scouting staff’s next hidden gem. At the very least, he looks like a solid coverage option at a bargain price.

Okay, that was a lot. Let’s assume that Rossi, Wallstedt and Khusnutdinov stay on their bridge contracts (using Evolving-Hockey’s current contract projections), Yurov and Buium are added to next season’s roster, and then see how the roster plays out from there:

Rossi (three years, $3.4 million AAV)
Khusnutdinov (two years, $860,000)
Yurov (ELC, $950,000)
Buium (ELC, $950,000)
Wallstedt (three years, $1.9 million)
= 8.06 million

Expected remaining ceiling: 11.49 million US dollars

Positions still to be filled: 3 (~3.8 million per seat)

Now that we’ve determined the bare minimum of what the Wild can reasonably expect in terms of salary cap space for the 2025-26 season, let’s look at some pending free agents who could be in the running.

With the above players, the Wild still need to sign a forward and two defensemen. With their top four defensemen under contract and Buium on the horizon, the back-end solutions will likely be low-cost options (think Chisholm and Merrill’s $1-1.2 million) that can fill the decidedly unglamorous 6th and 7th defenseman roles. That will allow Guerin to use more of the remaining salary cap space on his flagging offensive depth.

That’s where we’ll be focusing our attention as well. The 2025 UFA class at forward is remarkably unglamorous and full of aging players, which is definitely what the Wild are banking on. But going through those, we can still find some interesting names on the UFA and trade market.

Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG, UFA)

Perhaps the best and most straightforward offensive signing for the Wild, the speedy winger with power-play potential has already made it clear he’s looking for a change of scenery. Concerns about his size, durability and lack of playoff performance would be reasons to offer him a long-term contract for more than the $6 million he’s currently receiving.

Martin Necas (CAR, $6.5 million through 2025-26)

Oh, what we wouldn’t give to see Necas in a Wild uniform. A big, strong, talented center, Necas would be a dream. With his current contract running through the 2025-26 season, he’s likely just that: a dream. Given the Carolina Hurricanes’ similar playoff aspirations, the return from Minnesota would be substantial and would likely include several high-caliber talents, including Rossi.

Blake Coleman (CGY, $4.9 million through 2026-27)

Coleman would be a great option for the Wild to add offensive depth with championship experience. Coleman is coming off a personal-high 30-goal season and is a speedy forward who excels in shorthanded play. He brings consistency and tenacity to a team that would benefit greatly from his experience and skill. The Flames have no real playoff aspirations and tremendous salary cap flexibility, making them a good financial partner for the Wild. The fit also seems great because Coleman just feels like a Guerin-type player.

Another Brock (NYI or VAN, UFA)

Yes, yes, you knew there had to be at least one hometown option on this list, so let’s look at the possibility of the Wild adding another Brock: Nelson or Boeser. Brock Nelson and Brock Boeser will be UFAs next summer and are on similar contracts of $6 million and $6.5 million, respectively. But there are concerns with both players: Nelson turns 34 next fall. Boeser is coming off a season in which he scored 40 goals and put up 73 points, both of which are career highs, and it looks like he could make himself too expensive for the Wild, especially with the looming Kaprizov contract.