In one of the tougher divisions in the NHL, the Minnesota Wild are incredibly successful during the regular season (albeit less so in the post season). What sort of opportunities would a roster shakeup provide for Seattle's coming NHL team if the Wild decide to reevaluate their core in the near future?

(Check here for the guidelines and I thank capfriendly.com and hockeydb.com for the data)

Well, Minnesota certainly has a lot of people under contract in the 2020/2021 window:

Forwards: Zach Parise, Nino Niederreiter, Marcus Foligno

Defensemen/Defencemen: Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Greg Pateryn, Nick Seeler

Goalies: Devan Dubnyk

Parise and Suter have No Movement Clauses, so we can eliminate them and their matching contracts (over $7.5 million each for the next seven seasons) from consideration. Dubnyk has a modified Not Trade Clause which wouldn't necessarily come into play here, and no one else seems to have similar language requiring protection.

Niederreiter would be a compelling option, since he was a major junior star just down the road in Portland. "El Nino" often comes up as a player likely to be traded if Minnesota was to consider any roster shakeup, so I'd think it was just as likely he'd be the problem of whatever team he was traded to as being considered here.

I can't imagine Pateryn was signed merely weeks ago only to be exposed in a few short years. Even subtracting Suter from consideration leaves half of the Wild backline liable to be exposed. Seeler is on the sort of contract that is necessary for Minnesota to stay competitive, with almost $20 committed just to the defenders.

Dubnyk is signed to as reasonable a contract as you can expect an above-average goalie to have in the NHL, and I can't imagine him wanting to leave a stable situation after bouncing around three organizations in the two years prior to arriving in Minnesota.

While a more fundamental reboot could make bigger fish available, I'm guessing the pick here is:

Marcus Foligno (Left Wing)

Why Minnesota would make him available: Paying just a shade under $3 million for a winger who's never scored more than 25 points in a NHL season seems, uh, sub-optimal? I'm sure he provides some sort of contribution to the Wild on special teams, but I'd be highly surprised if the Wild couldn't find players would could provide what he does (if not more) on Entry Level Contracts.

And the ability to afford two or three of those ELCs for the cost of his current salary would make him that much easier to move on from.

Why Seattle would take him: Well, coming from a Hockey Family would be helpful from a PR standpoint. He would be an adequate placeholder in the bottom-six as Seattle cultivates more depth in their farm system. And being both on competitive trams in Minnesota and, uh, less competitive ones in Buffalo would give him perhaps enough experience to be a leader in the locker like his brother Nick.

I can't promise that Foligno would be the most earth-shattering acquisition Seattle would make, but they could do far worse and at far worse of a price point.

Starting out with no contracts under the salary cap might also make his contract not necessarily better but certainly useful to get to the floor.