First draw of the 22-23 Wild

Team: 2022-23 Minnesota Wild

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 29, 2022

Published: Mar. 29, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Middleton - I checked CapFriendly's contract comparables tool and it turns out not many defensive defensemen with under 100 career games played at the age of 26 get massive deals. So, I gave Middleton a raise of 500K and bumped his cap hit to 1,25 million. He gets to hit free agency as a more proven player at the age of 28. That is a good bet to make on yourself.

Fleury - Fleury has said he'd like to play beyond this season. With Minnesota, he also gets a chance to win. Fleury is now in the same spot Selanne was and Thornton is: he makes team-friendly short-term deals for as long as his body can handle it. Comparables are old men like Niemi (950K), Rask (1M), Vokoun (1,5M), and Bryzgalov (2M).

Fiala - It makes more sense to keep him than trade him. Not only is he a budding offensive superstar (and you generally want to keep those kinds of guys around), the trade market seems to undervalue him. His ask has been 7M for a long-term deal in the past but we can't afford that. How about a shorter deal that lets him hit free agency in his prime? If all else fails, we take him to arbitration again and push the can down the road one more time.

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