Wild shopping Niederreiter in advance of Expansion Draft?

Earlier this week NHL insider Elliotte Friedman made shockwaves throughout the league when he revealed that Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher has been taking offers on forward Nino Niederreiter.

 The 24 year-old broke out in a big way for the Wild in 2016-17 with 25 goals and 57 points in 82 games and earned a modest $2.67 million. Therein lies part of the problem for Fletcher, Niederreiter’s three-year, $8.475 million contract expires on July 1st and he’ll be in line for a considerable raise. For a team that already needs to re-sign emerging superstar Mikael Granlund, fitting Niederreiter under the salary cap could be a difficult task.

Further complicating matters are the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft. It’s clear that the Wild will lose an impact player, the only question is whether that player will be a forward or a defenseman. If Fletcher elects to protect four or more defenders, he risks losing a player like Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker or Erik Haula for nothing. Without exaggerating too much, that would be a disastrous mismanagement of assets by the Wild if it were to occur. Perhaps this is why Fletcher is testing the market for Niederreiter? If he can move him now for future assets, he needn’t worry about losing him for nothing in the Expansion Draft and would guarantee that he doesn’t break up his defensive core.

It’s an interesting strategy, but one that certainly has the potential to backfire on the Wild. With offensive leaders like Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu aging rapidly, the Wild will need players like Granlund, Niederreiter and Coyle to carry the torch moving forward, perhaps as early as next season.