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stfrank -> RE: Wild 2025-26 Season (1/19/2026 8:23:50 AM)
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A snippet from Russo and Smith from this morning:
Usually big trades at the deadline require parting with a first-round pick, meaning the Wild’s 2027 first-rounder is in play. And if the Wild are going to part with more young players, that could include Jesper Wallstedt (expendable because Filip Gustavsson is signed until 2031), Danila Yurov (less likely because he is absolutely on the rise and cheap with a $950K average annual value until 2028), Jiricek, Charlie Stramel, Adam Benak, Hunter Haight, Riley Heidt, Carson Lambos, David Spacek and others. Still, their A+ prospects are mostly gone.
We’ve assembled some names potentially on the trade block and whether or not they may make sense.
Vincent Trocheck
The 32-year-old Rangers center has three years left on a contract that pays him $5.625 million annually. He has a 12-team no-trade list, and we know Guerin and his staff have a great admiration for him as he was just named to the USA Olympic team.
Since 2016-17, he’s one of the best faceoff men in the NHL at 54.9 percent, and since 2000-01, the Wild are the third-worst. He’s a right shot, so he conceivably can even be put in the bumper position (where he’s great) on the No. 1 power play, which would put Kirill Kaprizov into a better shooting position.
As of now, contrary to reports, we don’t get the impression the Wild have inquired … yet. But it makes sense that they would. They’d just have to be comfortable taking on three more years of Trocheck.
The issue is, teams are starved for centers, and if New York Islanders rental Brock Nelson got a first-round pick and a top prospect from Colorado last deadline, Rangers general manager Chris Drury’s going to want a haul for Trocheck. The Wild may not have what it would take to get him.
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