The Minnesota Wild have grown into one of the top teams in the NHL, but they aren’t shy about making big moves.
They proved that a season ago when they made the mid-season blockbuster trade for Quinn Hughes, and so now everyone has their eyes on the Wild whenever a rumor starts to swirl.
That’s what prompted a fascinating idea in a new article by The Athletic’s James Mirtle. He was taking questions for a mailbag, and a fan asked him whether the Toronto Maple Leafs should try to trade Auston Matthews for Kirill Kaprizov.
Kaprizov, of course, is the superstar goal scorer for the Wild, recently signed to a huge long-term contract.
Matthews is the captain for Toronto and for the U.S. gold medalists from the Olympics.
If they were traded for one another, it’d be one of the most high-end one-for-one trades in sports history.
It just isn’t actually likely to happen.
Kaprizov-Matthews Idea Shot Down
Mirtle doesn’t see a world where it makes sense for either side to do a Kaprizov for Matthews trade.
“It feels like the NHL has moved beyond the era of superstar-for-superstar trades,” Mirtle wrote on Tuesday “There are just so many factors and complications, including every star having a NMC, making the money work and lining up extensions and UFA status. Kaprizov is locked in long-term at a number that now seems surprisingly reasonable ($17 million), whereas Matthews likely commands more than that and can go wherever he wants in 2028. That’s going to lower this value on the trade market, if it comes to that. I suspect the Leafs would be looking at futures packages more than getting a big name back.”
Mirtle answered more from a Maple Leafs perspective, but one point in the middle there is key. Matthews can be a free agent in the summer of 2028. Minnesota trading a long-term investment for a player who could leave in two years could be disastrous.
In a world where this trade was really on the table, the Wild would at least have to try and get Matthews signed to an immediate extension to make it potentially worth it.
Other Wild Ideas
The Wild may not consider trading Kaprizov, but they do have a star on the same timeline as Matthews: Quinn Hughes.
The defenseman’s future in Minnesota may not be as long as that of Kaprizov, and so the Wild have to at least keep their eyes open to ideas on what they might be able to do with Hughes moving forward.
No, that’s not to say they should trade him for Matthews. But in a sense, they have their own Matthews. Hughes is a star with an uncertain long-term future. That could lead to trade discussions surrounding him, too.
Wild Idea of Trading Kirill Kaprizov for Auston Matthews Shot Down