The Minnesota Wild have re-signed defenseman Dakota Mermis, goaltender Zane McIntyre, and forward Nick Swaney to one-year, two-way contracts for the 2023-24 season.
Swaney, the former University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog, was the first RFA of the Wild's six to to be qualified or in this case, given a contract.
The Wild also announced they have sent qualifying offers to defenseman Calen Addison, goaltender Filip Gustavsson, and forward Brandon Duhaime.
With three signings and three qualifying offers, the Wild also elected not to qualify Sam Steel, Mason Shaw, and Damien Giroux.
Analysis
After just one season with the organization, the Wild decided to not qualify Steel which makes him a free agent on July 1st.
Steel started the year in the Wild's bottom-six before Ryan Hartman got injured in November. This opened a first line center spot alongside Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov.
Steel took it and ran with it. But only for a little bit.
In the first five weeks as the Wild’s No. 1 center, the speedy Steel recorded four goals and ten points in 16 games. But once the calendar flipped to 2023, the Steel experiment as the first line center came to an end.
Hartman returned to his original role after his injury and Steel was then in and out of the lineup while moving up and down the Wild's lines.
The 25-year-old finished the year with 10 goals and 28 points in 65 regular season games.
Now, the Wild could circle back to Steel in free agency or they could just cut ties with him and have his Wild career last 65 games.
It has been a tough road for Shaw which is why this decision is so hard but the Wild electing not to give Shaw a qualifying offer making him a free agent.
Shaw might've been the hardest working player on the Wild last year and before that as well. He is the perfect guy to have in your bottom-six and on the penalty kill.
But in what was a great second season with the Wild, Shaw tore his fourth ACL after putting up seven goals and 17 points in 59 games for the Wild in his last year of a two year, $750K AAV deal,
The Wild could circle back to Shaw in free agency if they wanted to. Although he likely won't be ready for the start of the season, Shaw has proven to be a good NHL player and if he has shown signs of recovering his fourth ACL, I would have to think a team would sign him. Maybe even the Wild.
After all, Shaw was a key fixture in the Wild's bottom-six and on the penalty kill. He also was a spark plug and with Ryan Reaves testing free agency along with Matt Dumba, the Wild will be down two energy guys and possible three if this is the end for Shaw.
We will see what this all means for the Wild but as of the NHL Free Agency period, I'd expect the Wild to be a little quiet, with the exception of a few two-way contracts here and there.