Wild Rumors: Top Center Trade Target Revealed

The Minnesota Wild have chosen to go for it for at least the next couple of years and are in the most competitive division (playoff teams) in the league. They are third in the NHL, but are also third in their own division behind the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.

The Wild signed Kirill Kaprizov to a massive deal in the offseason and acquired Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks not too long ago. With a strong defensive group and two very good goalies, they are set to compete, but could still get knocked out in the first round because of the playoff format. This is why they feel like they need even more upgrades that will last longer than this season.

According to Michael Russo, Ryan O'Reilly would be the Wild's top target at center. He is affordable enough cap-wise at $4.5 million AAV for another year after this one, and is a top center on the Nashville Predators, so could be a very good second-line center on Minnesota.

O'Reilly would give the Wild another great two-way forward, and with Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman, Danila Yurov, and Nico Sturm, would have a much stronger look down the middle than they do right now after moving off of Marco Rossi.

O'Reilly is no slouch offensively either. On a bad Nashville Predators team who doesn't score very often, he has 11 goals and 32 points in 36 games. He regularly matches up against the toughest opponents as well, and plays 19:41 per game while skating nearly three minutes on the power play and nearly two minutes on the penalty kill each game as well.

In reality, to make a deal like this work, someone like Hartman or Marcus Foligno would have to be moved. So it's going to be a money in, money out sort of trade like the one involving Hughes. Expect the Wild to push hard for a center upgrade this season.