Blue Jackets' Voronkov Could Have Interest From Rising Team In West

Dmitry Voronkov's name has come up in trade rumors this summer, which is a bit surprising, but not out of the realm of possibility. He broke out last season and maybe the team sees that strong season as his peak and want to trade him while his value is high while they make room for other young players entering the NHL.

Voronkov has already been linked to the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders by The Fourth Period, but what about the Minnesota Wild? This is a team that has overcome a lot and the roster has had to outplay their contract quite a bit. The massive dead cap hits burdening their team year after year is no more and they can spend and upgrade.

The Wild have to think about extensions for Kirill Kaprizov and Filip Gustavsson before next summer, but there will be plenty of space to upgrade with other contracts expiring too. Signing Marco Rossi is the team's current concern, but it hasn't been smooth sailing at all.

There are some much older pieces on the wings after the first line with Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson, Marcus Foligno, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Vinnie Hinostroza, so a fresh face like Voronkov, who is only 24 and just scored 23 goals and 47 points, would be a great upgrade. He signed for two years at $4.175 million AAV, but is also still a RFA afterwards. The Columbus Blue Jackets are not going to set the price cheap if they are going to trade him.

Voronkov would fit well on the second line with Rossi and Zuccarello next season if something happens. The Wild need the scoring depth and more offense as their team ran on winning low scoring games before it caught up to them in the playoffs again. This is definitely an interesting destination Voronkov could land if his name does start to get hot again this offseason.