Examining the updated Minnesota Wild salary-cap situation
After signing young forwards Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter to new contracts, the Minnesota Wild are set to be right up against the salary cap again in 2018.
The Wild are spending an estimated $71,858,591 against the $75 million cap, the league's seventh-largest payroll per CapFriendly.com.
They'll likely be even closer to the top before the season begins.
Forward Marcus Foligno -- acquired from the Buffalo Sabres as part of the Jason Pominville trade -- remains a restricted free agent.
Foligno, who will turn 26 in August, signed a one-year deal worth $2.25 million last summer.
He's unlikely to command much more than that from the Wild after scoring a career-high 13 goals last season.
MINNESOTA WILD SALARIES
| Player | Age | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| Zach Parise | 33 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 |
| Mikko Koivu | 34 | $6.75 | UFA | |||||
| Mikael Granlund | 25 | $5.75 | $5.75 | $5.75 | UFA | |||
| Nino Niederreiter | 24 | $5.25 | $5.25 | $5.25 | $5.25 | $5.25 | UFA | |
| Tyler Ennis | 27 | $4.60 | $4.60 | UFA | ||||
| Eric Staal | 32 | $3.50 | $3.50 | UFA | ||||
| Charlie Coyle | 25 | $3.20 | $3.20 | $3.20 | UFA | |||
| Jason Zucker | 25 | $2.0 | RFA | |||||
| Chris Stewart | 29 | $1.15 | UFA | |||||
| Luke Kunin | 19 | $0.925 | $0.925 | $0.925 | RFA | |||
| Joel Eriksson Ek | 20 | $0.894 | $0.894 | RFA | ||||
| Landon Ferraro | 25 | $0.700 | $0.700 | UFA | ||||
| Marcus Foligno | 25 | RFA | ||||||
| Player | Age | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| Ryan Suter | 32 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 | $7.53 |
| Jared Spurgeon | 27 | $5.18 | $5.18 | $5.18 | UFA | |||
| Jonas Brodin | 24 | $4.16 | $4.16 | $4.16 | $4.16 | UFA | ||
| Matt Dumba | 23 | $2.55 | RFA | |||||
| Kyle Quincey | 31 | $1.25 | UFA | |||||
| Gustav Olofsson | 22 | $0.725 | RFA | |||||
| Ryan Murphy | 24 | $0.700 | RFA | |||||
| Player | Age | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| Devan Dubnyk | 31 | $4.33 | $4.33 | $4.33 | $4.33 | UFA | ||
| Alex Stalock | 30 | $0.650 | $0.650 | UFA |
*Contract values are expressed in millions.
NOTES
-- The language in Niederreiter and Granlund’s new deals do not include any kind of no-movement clauses. These come in a couple different flavors. Some give the player full veto power over trades, some allow the player to submit a list of teams for which he doesn’t want to play.
-- The Wild have six with the above clauses on the books currently: Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu have full no-movement clauses (those cover moves to the AHL too) while Eric Staal, Jared Spurgeon and Devan Dubnyk have modified no-trade clauses.
-- Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba are definitely due a raise next summer. A new, cheaper contract for Koivu could help some of that number-crunching along.
-- Chris Stewart could be a cap casualty to make those deals work. Eriksson Ek or one of the Wild’s young players could make him expendable next year.
Contract details courtesy of CapFriendly.com