The Minnesota Wild have signed Matt Boldy to a seven-year contract extension, the team announced on Monday. A deal worth $7 million per season, it’s a contract the team will hope Boldy outperforms, even though his production is down a touch this season from last year. Like the Buffalo Sabres did with Tage Thompson, if Boldy can prove he’s only scratching the surface of what he’s capable of, the Wild will have a fantastic value deal on their roster for years to come.
Michael Russo writes the Wild “wanted to do bridge w/ Boldy, but if you can lock him up at around 7/$50M now, you do it and deal with the aftermath. And there will be an aftermath.” Specifically, because the Wild will see the cost of the buyout penalties for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter actually increase next season, they’ll have to make tough decisions on a number of players they’d like to either keep or are willing to let go of. Among them, the Wild are expected to make a decision on Matt Dumba in the coming weeks.
Matt Dumba is a pending UFA and there has been talk in the past about moving him, with talk popping up again as this year’s trade deadline approaches. The issue for the Wild is that they are in a playoff spot and don’t want to move Dumba unless they have a defenseman who can take his place. That could mean going for a player with an expiring contract or one that has a lot less money tied up in their contract.
Could the Wild move Dumba out and upgrade to a player like Jakob Chychrun while sending cap space to Arizona in that same deal? That would allow the Wild to move off an expiring contract but get something back in return, then go for a blueliner with a good contract and move a player with salary in the process.
Boldy was drafted 12th overall by the Wild in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The 21-year-old has 68 points in 89 career regular-season games with the club. There is no salary bonus in his contract and years six and seven (UFA years) include a 10-team no-trade clause.
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