Patrik Laine To The Minnesota Wild Called "A No-Brainer"

As the Patrik Laine situation drags out in Columbus, we've heard the names of many teams that have supposedly been 'good fits' for him in a potential trade... Teams like the Buffalo Sabres, Seattle Kraken, Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights.

Now, Michael Russo of The Athletic adds a new team to that 'good fit' list, writing "Patrik Laine to the (Minnesota) Wild may be a no-brainer," given their scarcity of goal scoring. He adds, however, that it wouldn't be easy, cap-wise, to get it done.

Russo explains that the Wild do indeed have interest. "It is expected that (GM Bill) Guerin will reach out at some point soon to Laine to gauge how he’s feeling mentally and physically and whether he’s interested in playing for the Wild."

Minnesota, like other teams around the league, are hoping now that Laine's six-month stint in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program is complete, and after his recovery from shoulder surgery over the next several weeks, he will be rejuvenated and ready to live up to his pedigree as a No. 2 overall selection (2016).

Laine, after all, has been an elite scorer in the NHL, and even in a troubling three years with the Blue Jackets, he still averaged close to a point-per-game and scored at a 34-goal pace over a full season. Unfortunately, there have been no full seasons for Laine since he left the Winnipeg Jets back in 2020.

Mike Rupp of NHL Network agrees with Russo that Laine would be a good fit in Minny. “If there’s a team to kick the tires, I think Minnesota (makes sense) because they need that star power,” Rupp told The Athletic. “They need somebody else that can help carry the workload as far as putting up big numbers".

The Wild, however, only have $756,000 in cap space available, per PuckPedia, and will have only $1.5 million in space for next season, according to Russo. Laine, however, carries an $8.7 million cap hit for each of the next two seasons.

It would be difficult, to say the least, to make it work financially, even if the Blue Jackets retain 50%.

So for now, it might be a pipe dream in Minnesota, but we've seen stranger things happen in the NHL.