Rumor: 3 well established NHL veterans will be cut from the Wild roster.

It sounds like the Minnesota Wild intend to make some very tough cuts to their roster prior to the start of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season.

Although the cuts have not yet been made official there is now a report from Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo that indicates that 3 well established NHL veterans and a 4th player with some NHL experience are all likely to fail to make the final roster cut. Russo is reporting that the Wild that it is his belief that the roster cuts have begun in earnest at that "at least" veteran forward Matt Read, veteran goaltender Andrew Hammond and veteran defernseman Matt Bartkowski have all been informed that they will not be starting the season on the main roster.

This has to be hugely disappointing for all 3 men given that they are all now over 30 years of age and that is a milestone that usually tends to mark the downside of an NHL career or in some cases even the end of an NHL career. None of these 3 men are getting any younger any time soon and given their career trajectories they likely all have to be concerned about what the future holds for them as far as the NHL goes.

In the case of Bartkowski the 30 year old defenseman is coming off back to back season in which he failed to make much of an impact at all at the NHL level. Over the past two years Bartkowski appeared in just a total of 42 games for the Calgary Flames and he recorded just 1 goal and 4 assists for a total of 5 points over that stretch. 5 points over 2 years, even for a defenseman, isn't going to impress anyone and when you add to that the fact that he was -7 over that stretch it becomes even worse.

For 32 year old Matt Read the situation may be less dire than Bartkowski although his most recent season also marked a low point in his career. During the 2016 - 2017 campaign Read appeared in 63 games for the Flyers but as that team developed more young talent that number dropped to just 19 NHL games played in this most recent season. During the 2017 - 2018 NHL season the former Flyers forward scored just a single goal in those 19 appearances and he was relegated to the American Hockey League where he played with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the remainder of the season.

Hammond however may be in the worst situation of all with very little NHL experience of any kind in recent memory. Over the past 2 seasons Hammond has appeared in just 7 NHL games, a far cry from the 24 games performance that made him a local sensation in Ottawa during the 2014 - 2015 NHL regular season. Since then Hammond has failed to demonstrate solid performances at both the NHL and AHL levels with any kind of consistency and this may have been one of his last chances to earn a spot as an NHL backup. 

25 year old center Kyle Rau was also informed that he would not be starting the season on the Wild's roster but he is considerably younger and has considerably less experience than the other men mentioned above.

Update: The Wild have officially confirmed the news.

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