MN Wild Done Doing Business With Kaprizov’s Agent?

When the NHL league year flipped in July, the Minnesota Wild finally got out from under the Zach Parise + Ryan Suter buyout penalties that had been hanging over the organization like a dark cloud for the last half-decade.

But president of hockey operations Bill Guerin didn’t jump at his first opportunity to spend the Wild’s newfound cap flexibility. Instead, he waited patiently, until the perfect big swing trade presented itself seven months later.

At the end of December, Minnesota shocked the hockey world by jumping the line of NHL teams trying to pry unhappy 26-year-old superstar Quinn Hughes out of Vancouver, by offering the Canucks a deal they could not refuse — (essentially) FOUR first round draft picks.

Minnesota Wild aren’t done yet

It didn’t take long after the Quinn Hughes deal was complete, before rumors of another MN Wild blockbuster trade started to percolate. This team still has a SERIOUS issue up the middle, a problem that’s been drastically exaggerated since Joel Eriksson Ek went out of the lineup.

Nobody has been pushing a second swing more than top NHL insider Michael Russo. And on Monday, he and his colleague at The Athletic, Joe Smith, released a list of potential trade candidates that make sense.

Guerin, who began his organizational midseason meetings in Arizona on Sunday, has been scouring ever since the Hughes pickup and will continue to do so.

The Athletic

At the top of The Athletic’s trade candidate list are three New York Rangers. News broke leading into the weekend that the Rangers are officially selling at the deadline, and all three of (C) J.T. Miller, (C) Vincent Trochek and (LW) Artemi Panarin could make sense for the MN Wild.

But Russo and Smith aren’t putting much stock into their own mention of Panarin, as a realistic option. Yes, he’s a good friend and fellow countryman of Kirill Kaprizov and he would add offensive punch that this team needs. Panarin is a career 800 goal scorer who, at 34 years old, is tracking for a career year.

• Artemi Panarin 2025-26 Stats: 48 GP | 18 G | 54 PTS | 20:48 TOI

#NYR Artemi Panarin scores in his 800th NHL game. pic.twitter.com/EhLIUMkxDE

— Matthew P. Mugno (@mugnoma) January 17, 2026

Unfortunately, his downsides outweigh the possible positives of acquiring Panarin. First, he isn’t a center, which is what the Minnesota Wild really need. But more importantly than that, it appears Bill Guerin and his front office are done doing business with Artemi’s agent, Paul Theofanous.

Bill Guerin finished with Kirill Kaprizov’s agent, Paul Theofanous

In case you forgot, Theofanous — a popular agent among top Russians in the NHL — is the same guy who held Kaprizov’s contract extension hostage from the Wild this offseason, until Guerin agreed to make the 28-year-old BY FAR the league’s highest paid superstar, at $17 million per year.

Days later, other superstars including Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel signed team friendly deals with Edmonton and Vegas, that cost $12.5 million and $13.5 million, respectively — a fraction of what Kaprizov cost the Wild.

Although a year ago we were convinced the Wild would want to team up Kaprizov with Panarin if Panarin got to free agency, we’re not so certain anymore.

Beyond the fact the scoring winger is 34 and has had some off-ice baggage, we find it hard to believe the Wild are going to want to add another Theofanous client after he leveraged them into giving Kaprizov a record $136 million contract last September.

It hasn’t made Kaprizov or the Wild look good that Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor and Adrian Kempe all played ball with their teams and signed for significantly less afterward.

The Athletic

Minnesota Wild second swing before trade deadline won’t be easy

Making a deal happen this time will have immense challenges, obstacles that the Hughes trade did not. For starters, the Minnesota Wild have dealt away most of their future first round draft picks, and a lot of their best prospects, leaving the cupboards down in Iowa and beyond, rather bare.

Still, Guerin is expected to makes something happen before March 7, when the deadline officially hits later than normal, thanks to the three-week Olympic break from February 2-22.

It’s also worth noting that, while the best hockey players in the world are representing their countries in Milan, the NHL is freezing all trades back home (Feb 4-22). Deals can again be sent to the league starting at midnight (ET) on February 23.

It’s possible Minnesota could swing a deal before February 2, but it seems unlikely, given their current injury situation, and how that affects their current cap flexibility.

It’s hard to figure out exactly the amount of cap space the Wild will have at the March 6 deadline, because they have a half dozen players on the current roster who are Iowa call-ups eating into their cap accrual.

If they make a big trade before the Olympic trade freeze there theoretically could be no space. If they don’t make a big trade before the Olympics, depending on health, the Wild could have between $7 million and $10 million to add a player or players.

The Athletic