Insider: 2 Teams 'Circle Back' On Marco Rossi Trade Interest
The Minnesota Wild and restricted free agent Marco Rossi remain in a stalemate over a new contract, though in recent weeks, trade talk has calmed down. Until now.
According to James Murphy of rg.org, two teams that had kicked the tires earlier this summer, and are both known to be searching for a top-six offensive boost, have put Rossi back on their radar, and reached back out to Minny.
According to two different NHL sources, the Vancouver Canucks and the Seattle Kraken recently circled back with the Minnesota Wild to see where they stand in their contract talks with restricted free agent center Marco Rossi.
One insider recently suggested that Rossi could even be contemplating a holdout from training camp if he can't come to terms with the Wild. If it's trending in that direction, both the Canucks & Kraken will be ready to pounce.
“Both were in on Rossi leading into and at the NHL Entry Draft, and until probably mid-July, and I’m hearing that they’ve made it clear that if it gets to the point in the next month, where contract talks between Rossi and the Wild reach a point of no return, they want to see what it would take to acquire Rossi,” the source told Murphy.
What is the gap in contract talks between Minnesota Wild & Marco Rossi?
What that 'point of no return' is, it's hard to say. Rossi wants a $7 million AAV on a new deal, but the Wild are thinking $5 million.
One of the sources also indicated his belief that Wild GM Bill Guerin could act fast if it becomes apparent that Rossi might indeed be sitting out training camp.
“Yeah, I just don’t see Guerin wanting to deal with that distraction, and if it gets that far, maybe he just parts ways with the kid."
The Kraken make sense as a fit for Rossi, not only because of their need for offense, but also because of the connection between Guerin and his Seattle counterpart Jason Botterill. The latter was Director of Hockey Operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins during their 2009 Stanley Cup season, when he acquired Guerin in a trade deadline deal that year, with the 38-year-old winger contributing tremendously to the Pens' Cup run.
But the Canucks have those colleague ties as well, notes Murphy, as both Botterill and Guerin worked with current Canucks GM Patrik Allvin while all were in Pittsburgh.
