What Is Marco Rossi's Future With The Minnesota Wild?

So what exactly was up with Marco Rossi during the playoffs? The Minnesota Wild's second-leading scorer during the regular season (60 points in 82 games with a +3 rating) was dropped way down the lineup during the Wild's six-game series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

And some followers are more than perplexed, as he's now a restricted free agent and coming off his entry-level deal. He had 45 goals and 100 points in his first two full seasons in Minnesota, and would seem to be a core piece for the team going forward. But his 11:08 average ice time in the playoffs throws some uncertainty into the situation.

He was shockingly dropped to the fourth line, and taken off the top power-play unit as well.The 23-year-old even scored two goals in the series, despite the very limited ice time. During the regular season, he averaged 18:15 TOI per night. As for Rossi's thoughts on both his lack of ice time in the postseason, and his future contract status, he generally took the high road and declined to really tip his hand.

Joe Smith reported in The Athletic that Rossi said he had an honest, "man-like" exit meeting with head coach John Hynes.

“As a player, you don’t always have to understand some decisions, but it’s important to respect those (coaches') decisions," said Rossi.

He also added that the contract stuff is a bit out of his control, saying "the rest, my agents will deal with", but that he would love to stay with the Wild.

Smith adds, however, that Rossi turned down a five-year contract offer from the team during the season. There's no word if that's still on the table, or how much more difficult negotiations will be after the ice-time cut.

As Smith writes, "the way he was deployed in the playoffs may also mean the ship has sailed on Rossi’s willingness to sign a shorter-term bridge deal."

AFP Analytics has Rossi pegged for a 7-year deal worth $7.3M AAV.

This will be an intriguing situation to watch, and perhaps an Offer Sheet could come along to complicate it further (or perhaps, for Rossi, make his choice a lot simpler).