Mike Reilly has inked a new two year deal with the Wild. The contract will pay Reilly 675K next season and 775K the following year.
Reilly will compete for a top six role on the Wild blueline, with Marco Scandella in Buffalo and Christian Folin in Los Angeles.
Reilly has shown signs that he can play at the NHL level over his extended stints with the Wild the last two seasons. He has some offensive upside and moves the puck very well. His foot speed is average at best, but with improved decision making and maturity Reilly could be a good fit on the Wild 3rd defense unit.
The big question marks left for Chuck Fletcher are the new deals for Granlund and Niederreiter. Once those deals are done Fletcher can focus on completing his roster if he plans on making any more additions via free agency.
To date Fletcher has done a very good job given the tough off season tasks he has had to deal with. He was able to orchestrate a trade with Vegas to keep his defense unit in tact as well as hold on to Eric Staal.
The deal with Vegas also alleviated a contract negotiation with RFA Erik Haula, freeing up those dollars, giving Fletcher better flexibility going into free agency season.
The trade of Tyler Graovac, for a 5th round draft pick, was at least a return on a player Fletcher waived twice this past season, most recently back in February, and could have lost for nothing. Graovac was on a two way deal this past season, but next year it is a one way deal at $625K.
Fletcher then passed on moving a defenseman at the draft, when it was clear that he was receiving multiple offers. He then pulled the trigger on the deal with Buffalo, sending Marco Scandella and Jason Pominville to Buffalo in exchange for Tyler Ennis and Marcus Foligno.
Getting out from under Pominville's $5.6 million cap hit both this coming season and next without having to eat any of that money is a win, no matter how you slice it. Scandella has been a solid defenseman for the Wild but his $4 million annual deal for the next 3 years off the books again gives Fletcher some more flexibility.
Ennis of course comes with his own $4.6 million contract for the next 2 seasons, but he is being brought in to add offense. Ennis is still just 27 and has three 20 goal seasons under his belt and two other shortened seasons that he was on pace to eclipse the 20 goal plateau. Ennis is exciting and plays the game at a high tempo. He should be a big addition in Bruce Boudreau's system.
Foligno will be 26 when the new season begins and he should bring a power forward approach to the Wild which is an area the Wild really need to upgrade. Fletcher admitted that Foligno has been a target of his for a couple of years now, and now we will see how Foligno performs in a Wild sweater. Foligno has improved his goal production in each of the last five seasons in the NHL, and with an expanded role in Minnesota, there is no reason he can't improve on the 13 goals he potted this past year.
Fletcher then went to work on July 1st adding depth to the organization adding some pieces that could turn into productive players, with very low risk. He added 7 players, but the two that intrigue me the most are Ryan Murphy who was a former 1st round pick #12 overall in 2011 of the Hurricanes, and Niklas Svedberg the 27 year old Swedish netminder, who will compete with Alex Stalock to be Dubnyk's backup.
Murphy is a 24 year old right shot defenseman who has some high end offensive potential and could prove to be a diamond in the rough and his $700K 1 year deal is perfect. Defenseman typically take longer to mature, and having spent parts of the last five seasons in the NHL Murphy is primed to take the next step. The change of scenery combined with coming to a team with an established core defensive unit and strong team structure, could be the right fit for Murphy to take off.
So far so good for Fletch.