Minnesota Wild Very Interested in Bringing Veteran Forward Home

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Anders Lee - New York Islanders at Minnesota Wild — Credit: USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The start of NHL free agency is Tuesday at 11 a.m. CDT. That is expected to be the deadline in which the Minnesota Wild must complete a trade for Dylan Larkin, if they are going to do it this offseason.

Because when the market opens tomorrow, president of hockey operations Bill Guerin may not have a choice but to start making moves to fill out a roster that now has multiple holes in their top two forward lines.

At this point, whether they land Larkin or not, Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson and Vladimir Tarasenko will all be looking for new homes. Of course, landing Larkin would replenish a lot of what will be lost offensively with that departing trio.

But if they fail to get it done, what is next? That is the No. 1 question currently hanging over this organization, outside of how the Larkin chase, itself, ends.

Minnesota Wild expected to chase Anders Lee

The answer, unfortunately, isn’t a simple one. What we know for sure, though, is that they’ll lie in free agency, not on the trade market, should the Minnesota Wild fall short in their talks with Detroit.

And if Guerin hasn’t sealed the Larkin deal by the end of tomorrow morning… it sounds like one of the first UFA’s to receive a call from St. Paul will be Edina’s own, Anders Lee, longtime captain of the New York Islanders.

I expect the #mnwild to have a lot of interest. I do think Lee will take his time to examine the right team for his next stop, so he may not necessarily be a July 1 signing https://t.co/33Cx8L9g2c
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 30, 2026

Anders Lee will turn 36 years old this week, so just like many of the options Minnesota will check in on during free agency, he’s no spring chicken. The NHL allows teams to sign veterans (35+) to contracts with lower cap hits and higher performance bonuses.

Undoubtedly, the Wild will be looking to capitalize on some of the flexibility allowed by signing talented veterans who can still contribute at a high level. Anders Lee is one of those guys, fresh off a 2025-26 season where he yet again went for over 40 points.

What does Lee have to offer Wild at his age?

In fact, Lee scored 19 goals and assisted on 23 others (42 points) while playing in all 82 games for the New York Islanders, where he has spent his entire career up to this point. Lee, a Notre Dame alum, hasn’t missed a game in any of the past three season, making age even less of a concern.

ANDERS LEE WITH A DAGGER IN THE FINAL MINUTE 🗡️ pic.twitter.com/nCccgLqT9R
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) March 2, 2026

It gets better. Only twice in Iron Man Anders’ 14-year NHL career, has Lee failed to play at least 75 games and they came back-to-back in 2019-20 (68 games) and the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, where he played just 27 of the Islanders’ 56 games.

Not only has he been available to the Islanders throughout most of his career, the former 6th round draft pick has been productive, totalling between 35 and 70 points every year of his career (other than 2020-21). In his last contract, Lee made $7 million per season (7 year deal).