Minnesota Wild Free Agency Recap: Who's In and Who's Out
Despite being limited in cap-space, the Wild stayed busy yesterday on the first day of NHL Free Agency.
The Wild first announced the hiring of Jason King to be their new Assistant coach. King spent the last three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks as their Assistant coach.
During his time with Vancouver, King was given the task of running the Canucks power play in two of the three years. During the 2022-23 season the Canucks scored 62 power play goals. That was the most Vancouver had scored in a single season since 2011.
After the Hiring of King, the Wild signed forwards Vinni Lettieri and Jake Lucchini on two-way deals. Lettieri, a former Gopher, signed a two-year, two-way contract earning himself 750k in the NHL and 550k in the AHL.
Lettieri notched 83 points in 149 games for the University of Minnesota. The native of Excelsior, Minn., helped the Gophers win four straight Big Ten regular season championships and made three NCAA tournament appearances from 2013-2017.
The 28-year-old has played in five NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, and the Anaheim Ducks where he has recorded seven goals and 18 points in 83 career games.
Lucchini, a former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, was signed to a one-year, two-way contract earning 750k at the NHL level and 300k at the AHL level.
Lucchini played his college hockey at Michigan Tech where he notched 104 points in 164 games. Lucchini was the Huskies team captain during his senior season in 2018-19.
He signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins as an undrafted free agent in 2019 while current Wild GM Bill Guerin was still working with the Penguins as the Assistant GM.
With not having much cap-space and focusing on getting RFA Goaltender Filip Gustavsson signed, the Wild watched a few of their players from last season sign with new teams.
Ryan Reaves signed a three-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs and John Klingberg joined Reaves with the Leafs on a one-year deal.
Sam Steel signed a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars at 850k and Gustav Nyquist signed a two-year deal with the Nashville Predators.
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