Minnesota Wild Rumors: Team To Move Fleury In Offseason

The Minnesota Wild have lost seven first round series in the past eight years and failed to qualify for the playoffs the other season. Now that the Toronto Maple Leafs first round woes are behind them, the Wild will have more of a spotlight on their failures to advance in the postseason.

While they have a good enough team to make the playoffs, they will continue to struggle in the playoffs with very little cap space to work with. The buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise are still haunting them worse than ever as the cap hit will rise to nearly $15 million AAV for the next two seasons. With contract extensions and trying to keep the team together for the most part, the Wild are going to have to make some tough decisions in the offseason. One of those decisions might be attempting to trade Marc-Andre Fleury if they can.

After the series loss to the Dallas Stars, Fleury said postgame that he intends on playing one more NHL season and then that might be it. He has one year left on his deal that sees him getting paid $3.5 million AAV. He's 38, but his numbers were far worse than Filip Gustavsson's, the supposed backup that ended up being the starter in the playoffs.

The issue that may come up is that Fleury has a full no-move clause, but is also a team player and allowed himself to be selected in the Vegas expansion draft and then be traded to Chicago and Minnesota. The Wild desperately need the cap space and Gustavsson is also in need of a new contract. The Wild can find someone cheaper to replace Fleury that can put up a .908 SV% in the regular season as Gustavsson has proven he can start. They have Jesper Wallstedt in the minors to consider as well.