With Saturday’s trade freeze looming ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights’ expansion draft, Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher is one of the executives in the biggest binds.
His reward for building a deep roster is that he’s likely to lose a pretty nice asset, which is why he’s “definitely actively listening” to calls regarding trading one of his surplus defensemen, as he told Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
To be more specific, if one blueliner would go, Russo reports that Fletcher has received “quality offers” for Mathew Dumba and Jonas Brodin (especially Brodin).
The Wild general manager has gotten “quality trade offers” for both Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba, sources say. With Ryan Suter and likely Jared Spurgeon being two of the maximum three Wild defensemen that can be protected, the Wild may have determined that it would be more prudent to trade Brodin or Dumba rather than risk losing one for nothing during Wednesday’s expansion draft.
Interesting.
One tantalizing hypothetical trade possibility would involve the Wild sending Brodin to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Alex Galchenyuk, who management (rightly or wrongly) may deem expendable after acquiring Jonathan Drouin.
Team to watch now is MIN. Lots of Jonas Brodin trade talk coming out of Twin Cities. I don't doubt Brodin would type of D MTL is targeting.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 15, 2017
Bob McKenzie notes that there could be other offers for Brodin, as well.
Fletcher’s trying to project an air of calm over the situation, yet then again, he’s also talking about waking up in the early hours of the morning thinking about all of this.