The Wild made a few more cuts on Friday and it appears its roster for the regular season is beginning to take shape.
Minnesota assigned Carson Soucy to Iowa and released Ryan Malone from his NHL tryout – but the veteran will remain in the organization and will continue on an AHL tryout.
With those two being cut, the Wild’s roster sits at 24; NHL teams are only allowed to have a maximum of 23 players, so there will be at least one more player released or assigned to Iowa by the time camp breaks.
Who’s vying for spots?
Below is a group of players who are on roster bubble for the remainder of training camp.
- Daniel Winnik, LW
- Ryan Murphy, D
- Luke Kunin, C
- Joel Eriksson-Ek, C
- Gustav Olofsson, D
- Mike Reilly, D
It’s worth noting that Winnik is in camp on a tryout offer, so he’ll have to be signed to a contract if indeed makes the team. He played under Boudreau in Anaheim and clearly the coach likes his game.
Kunin has stuck around a bit longer than some projected because Eriksson-Ek was battling injury. At the beginning of camp, Bruce Boudreau projected Eriksson-Ek to have a top-nine role, but now it appears Kunin is pushing him for a roster spot.
With Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba occupying the top-four defensive spots, Minnesota is trying to round out its final pair.
Free agent add Kyle Quincy looks to be occupy one of the spots on the final pair, with Reilly, Murphy and Oloffson trying to grab the other.
Salary cap problems
The Wild are right up against the NHL salary cap which is a ceiling of $75 million for the 2017-18 season. If a team is over the salary cap, it may face a fine.
So basically the Wild have to construct a roster that keeps them right underneath $75 million ceiling.
