With less than a month until training camp starts the Minnesota Wild have not yet been able to get their final piece of the puzzle to sign: Calen Addison. The restricted free agent (RFA) turned down his qualifying offer of $787,500 and is apparently holding out for a bigger number. The only problem is that the Wild only have $1.6 million in cap space with a 20-man roster and would like to have some leftovers to call up a thirteenth forward as injury insurance. A contract for Addison of anything over $800,000 would limit the Wild very heavily in that regard unless they are willing to risk losing Jon Merrill by sending him through waivers to Iowa and burying most of his cap hit.
Merrill’s Contract Leaves Him Vulnerable
Unfortunately for a very cap-strapped team such as the Wild, the difference between a $1.2 million defenseman, such as Merrill, and a $ 800,000 defenseman like Dakota Mermis or Daemon Hunt can make all the difference in the World. As it stands, if the Wild signed Addison for just $850,000 they would be extremely restricted in their ability to call up players to cover for injuries as they would have just $793,000 in cap space. That limits them to Vinni Letteri, Nic Petan, or Vinni Letteri. Not bad options, but also not the options they would like to have.
The bottom pairing is expected to be some rotating combination of Merrill, Addison, and veteran Alex Goligoski, but if the Wild need an easy way to get a little relief from the cap ceiling, Merrill is likely the one that moves. Goligoski has a no-move clause and doesn’t seem like he wants to go anywhere, Addison is hoped to be a key element quarterbacking the first power-play unit as long as his defensive game improves; that just leaves Merrill, who had some questionable stints during the 2022-23 season to say the least.
Burying Merrill Opens Options
If Merrill were to be sent down, he would have to pass through waivers, during which time any team would decide to claim him, not ideal as he is a serviceable NHL-caliber player, but if he were to clear waivers, his cap hit for the Wild would be just $50,000 according to capfriendly.com. This is because the minimum salary for the 2023-24 season is $775,000, plus $375,000 to create the buried threshold. A team can “bury” a player worth $1.15 million in the AHL, if their cap hit is greater than that number the rest of the player’s cap still counts against the NHL team’s total salary. Merrill’s $1.2 million, therefore, becomes just $50,000.
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Burying Merrill means they also have $1.9 million to work with in terms of carrying a seventh defenseman and still having plenty left over to call up any of their young forwards. It allows the team to call up the proper player to fill any gaps that are created, instead of just the one on the cheapest deal. It also helps remove any worries of being forced to play games with seven defensemen dressed because they would have enough space to be able to call up multiple forwards if needed.
Defense Pairings With No Merrill
Let’s face it, the Wild’s defense looks a lot different this season without Matt Dumba beside his usual partner, Jonas Brodin, so it might just be a good time to shake things up a little instead of trying to just slide Brock Faber into Dumba’s spot and hoping it works. Trying to keep things as close to the way they were last season would mean a likely third pairing of Goligoski and Addison, strong offensively but likely disastrous in their own zone. Instead, a balancing of the defence in terms of size and offensive/defensive abilities gives the following:
Jonas Brodin – Jared Spurgeon
Jacob Middleton – Calen Addison
Alex Golisgoski – Brock Faber
(Dakota Mermis / Daemon Hunt)
Now, I know not everyone will like these pairings, but there is obviously a number one pairing that is intended to be played heavily. Brodin and Spurgeon have been put together in the past, and it has never seemed to stick, but these two are the team’s anchors that could shut down basically any top line in the NHL and make it look easy, I’d expect heavy minutes for them.
The bottom four are where the question marks appear, and put them in whichever order you want, but I believe that by placing the rookies with a veteran player opposite their own skill set you can get the best out of what they offer as they adjust and develop.
Addison is an elite puck mover, and if you put him with Middleton, who takes the body and wins board battles, he will get the puck more. Faber is skilled defensively and already shown to be reliable in his own end making him a much easier player to find a partner for. I have Goligoski slotted in here, but this is also where we could see someone like Daemon Hunt win a spot out of the preseason.
It All Comes Down to Money
In the end, Merrill is a good defenseman, and it would be better for the Wild if he was on the roster and available every night, but his contract is the easiest one to move. Without creating some space, the Wild will be putting themselves into tough positions all season, especially if there ends up being more than one player injured at a time.
The key here is being able to react to problems as they come along instead of crossing their fingers that nothing bad happens. A bonus is that if you do bury Merrill and nothing bad happens, the extra cap space means they could potentially accrue enough space to make an addition at the trade deadline if they are in a playoff position, something extremely unlikely to happen otherwise.
