It’s time for another edition of NHL rumours to end your work week. The Minnesota Wild made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but there are some changes that will need to be made. Minnesota is going to find itself in salary cap purgatory and will have to make some moves. One of those will likely be a not giving a new Matt Dumba contract. Today’s NHL rumours looks at that scenario for the Wild.
All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.
NHL Rumours
Matt Dumba Contract Likely Coming Elsewhere
Rumour: The Athletic’s Joe Smith and Michael Russo said that the veteran defenceman will likely sign with a different club. Dumba did say that he loves Minnesota. However, he’ll likely get a nice payday from another club. He’s 28 years old and had a great second half of the season. Despite the love for the Twin Cities, he’s probably going to be signed by a new team.
What are Wild fans wondering about as we inch toward the draft on June 28 and 29 and free agency on July 1?@joesmithnhl and @RussoHockey select queries and have answers, including regarding the future of Dean Evason.https://t.co/dJC3vaGesI
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) May 15, 2023
The Wild are going to make some cost-cutting moves after dealing with the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The team will have to eat over $14.6 million in dead cap space. General manager Bill Guerin is going to have to make some fancy moves in order to get the Wild under the likely $83.5 million cap number. Minnesota will have two seasons of the large cap penalty to deal with. This likely means Dumba is probably not long for the team.
What it Means
Dumba did start playing smarter hockey and cleaned up some of his glaring turnovers. He’ll likely get around his $6 million cap number from some team that could use him. The Regina, Saskatchewan native still has plenty of his career left to go and he may return to Minnesota down the way. However, the numbers just don’t work.
Guerin probably won’t be able to move some of the salaries like Marc-Andre Fleiury or Marcus Foligno to keep Dumba. However, stranger things have happened. It’s still unlikely that Dumba will be back with the Wild next season.
Main photo by: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
