ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild and Mats Zuccarello have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $4.125 million annually that will keep him in Minnesota through the 2025-26 season, the team announced Friday morning.

The two-year deal will include a no-move clause for both years, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo. The Athletic also reported that talks have started with Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman, who both are on the final year of their respective contracts. Brandon Duhaime, Pat Maroon, Alex Goligoski, Marc-Andre Fleury, Connor Dewar (RFA) and Calen Addison (RFA) also have one year left on their deals.

Zuccarello, 36, has one year left on the five-year, $30 million contract that former Wild general manager Paul Fenton signed him to in free agency in July of 2019. Now he's sticking around through the 2025-26 season after recording 218 points in 255 games across his first four years in Minnesota.

Zuccarello started his Wild tenure off slow with 37 points in 65 games in Year 1, but he's taken off ever since the arrival of Kirill Kaprizov in 2020, where he recorded 35 points in 42 games during Kaprizov's rookie year. Zuccarello and Kaprizov have gelled perfectly and have as good of chemistry as you can have. 

Zuccarello has taken his game to another level the past two years and has shown an invaluable blend of scoring and playmaking. 

Not only has he scored 20+ goals in each of the past two seasons (24 in 21-22 and 22 in 22-23), but he has 100 assists to his name. The veteran winger racked up 55 assists and 79 points in 2021-22 and 45 assists and 67 points last season. Zuccarello has been worth 3.2 wins above replacement over the past two seasons, according to Evolving-Hockey.

Zuccarello has 573 points in 766 career games with the New York Rangers and Wild with a brief stint with the Dallas Stars sandwiched between them.

Zuccarello's been an important piece on the Wild's top line with Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman as the trio's been Minnesota's top line and a major reason for their success. The Wild need Zuccarello to continue to be an impact player over these next three seasons.