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stfrank -> RE: Wild 2025-26 Season (2/24/2026 9:01:34 AM)
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The guess from the Athletic:
Minnesota Wild
The perfect fit: Vincent Trocheck, C, New York Rangers
The trade: Trocheck for Minnesota’s 2027 first-round pick, C prospect Charlie Stramel and LHD prospect Carson Lambos
The Hughes trade has catapulted the Wild to Stanley Cup contenders, but it’s no secret they’d benefit enormously from adding another bona fide top-six center to complement Joel Eriksson Ek. Minnesota’s path for a deep playoff run will likely require beating Dallas (Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene) and Colorado (Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Jack Drury), both of whom are considerably more formidable down the middle. GM Bill Guerin should be exploring every possible avenue to add another difference-making forward ahead of the deadline because presumably a deep postseason run would massively help the team’s chances of convincing Quinn Hughes, who will be eligible for a contract extension on July 1, to re-sign.
The St. Louis Blues’ star center Robert Thomas would be the dream target, but the asking price is probably outrageously high, making this a bit of a far-fetched possibility. Trocheck is the next best center and would check many boxes for Minnesota. Offensively, he’s produced at around a 70 points per 82 games pace over four years in New York, and his 0.76 points per game since last season ranks 35th among all NHL centers, which is low-end first-line/elite second-line territory. Trocheck was a particularly strong fit on Artemi Panarin’s line, which should make the Wild feel confident that he’d click with Kirill Kaprizov, another elite Russian playmaking winger.
Trocheck’s specialties beyond offense are also a perfect match for Minnesota’s weaknesses. He’s elite in the face-off circle — he’s won 58.4 percent of his draws since 2024-25, which ranks fourth-best among all NHL players — which would be a massive boost for a Wild team that ranks 31st at the dot. He’d also be a difference-maker for Minnesota’s struggling penalty kill, which over the past three years ranks 24th, 30th and 30th respectively.
The Rangers would probably ask for budding young rookie center Danila Yurov as part of a Trocheck return, but he’s progressed really nicely, and his entry-level contract value is too valuable to Minnesota’s salary cap structure to surrender, especially with Kaprizov’s monster extension kicking in next season. Our mock proposal would still represent a strong return for Trocheck.
Stramel, the No. 21 pick in 2023, may be the most valuable piece of the package coming New York’s way. The big 6-foot-3 right-shot center is having an excellent season for Michigan State (19 goals and 40 points in 30 games), and at 21, he’s already close to being NHL-ready. He doesn’t have the upside to become a top-line center, but big-bodied centers with skill are premium assets in today’s NHL. New York needs more first-round picks to bolster its thin prospect pipeline, so Minnesota’s 2027 first is a necessary inclusion. We’ve also added Carson Lambos as a tertiary piece, but you could swap him out for another secondary prospect/young player.
Overall, the proposed return is similar to what Brock Nelson fetched at last year’s trade deadline. Trocheck has more term remaining on his contract than Nelson did, which might make you think he should be worth significantly more. However, we rate Nelson as a better player than Trocheck (he averaged 35 goals for three consecutive seasons prior to being traded) and he was more of a solo driver, as he didn’t have the luxury of playing with a Panarin-caliber linemate the way Trocheck mostly has, so our mock price reflects that.
I think I could live with that if it happens......
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