What could Minnesota Wild get for Gustavsson? Will they trade Rossi? Mailbag,

It’s mailbag time as the Minnesota Wild head into an important offseason that could see them trade goalie Filip Gustavsson and even 21-goal-scorer Marco Rossi while trying to add a top-six forward via trade or free agency on a one-year or two-year deal.

Assuming Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov make the team, the Wild have 11 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies locked with $6,499,746 in cap space at this point. That includes $14.7 million in dead money, plus another $425,000 for Rossi hitting goals and time-on-ice bonuses this season. That cap figure could drop to $6,287,246 if Rossi receives another $212,500 bonus for making the all-rookie team.

For a complete look at where that leaves the roster and cap situation, our current offseason depth chart is at the bottom of this article (with a full breakdown here).

But before that, let’s tackle a bunch of questions from Wild fans. We received enough to split this into two mailbags, with the first focusing on trades, free agency and (non-prospect) contracts. On Thursday, we’ll get into prospect and coaching questions, as well as all the other random topics you raised.

(Note: Some questions are edited for length and clarity.)

What would a return look like on a Gustavsson trade? Frankly, I’d be fine just getting rid of the contract.

To start, a Gustavsson trade would save $2.825 million when you take into consideration that the Wild would remove his $3.75 million average annual value and replace it with Jesper Wallstedt’s $925,000 AAV. But that’s if the Wild trade Gustavsson for a high draft pick and/or prospect. If they trade him for an NHL player, the savings would obviously be a little less.

The second the Wild extended Marc-Andre Fleury at one-year, $2.5 million, it indicated that Gustavson would be on the trading block this offseason. There’s no guarantee he’s traded, but indications are that the Wild don’t believe Wallstedt can get any more from playing in the minors and would find immense value in him working a full year with Fleury and goalie coach Freddy Chabot.

Obviously, there’s risk in trading a young (25-year-old) goalie like Gustavsson who had a strong season in 2022-23 (.931 save percentage, 2.10 goals-against average), but returning with the same goaltending that was so sub-par this season is a risk as well.

Do you think Gustavsson is even tradeable after a tough year?

That’s a tricky one. The Wild would be selling lower than after last year’s breakout season, obviously. And there are a lot of goalies out there potentially on the trade market. Still, with the volatility of the goaltender position league-wise, a team could bet on unlocking Gustavsson’s full potential.

Getting a first-rounder for Gustavsson seems unlikely, but perhaps the Wild could get a second. They’d probably prefer to get a rostered player back, anyway — ideally a middle-six winger. They could also use Gustavsson as a chip to move up in the first round, though many of the teams…