The off-season is in full swing. July 1st is quickly approaching. The focus is on the 2025 NHL Draft which is on Friday and Saturday, but it is never too early to look at some possible free agents the Minnesota Wild could be targeting.
Minnesota traded its fourth line center Marat Khusnutdinov to the Boston Bruins at the deadline and missed out of signing college free agent center Tim Washe. The focus on July 1st won't be to only sign a bottom-six center but that is the purpose of today's story.
The Wild's penalty kill has been a topic for discussion for years. During the 2024-25 season they finished 30th in the NHL at 72.4 percent.
A big focus heading into the season was to improve the PK. The Wild brought in Yakov Trenin and Jakub Lauko to help that. Trenin finished the season not on the penalty kill and the Wild traded Lauko in the Khusnutdinov deal.
Matt Boldy got some penalty kill time down the stretch and into the playoffs and didn't look out of place. But the Wild's penalty kill in the playoffs was about the same, 72.2 percent.
One free agent that could help the Wild would be Colin Blackwell who was playing for the Dallas Stars during the 2024-25 season.
Blackwell, 32, recorded six goals, 11 assists, 17 points, and 84 hits in 63 games. He played under current Wild head coach John Hynes' Nashville Predators in 2019-20. He did not get much playing time under Peter Laviolette but once Hynes took over, Blackwell pretty much finished the season as a regular.
The native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, has bounced around in his career but has never made over $1.25 million. His defensive ability along with his aggressive and physical game, would fit the Wild well in the bottom-six. He shoots right as well which is rare on the Wild.
Nonetheless, Blackwell could be a pretty cheap option to improve the bottom-six and penalty kill. The Wild should look to sign him if the price is right.
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