Minnesota Wild: Going for a Playoff Push or Looking Towards Next Season?

The Minnesota Wild made two minor deals at the NHL trade deadline.  They moved two defensemen, Nick Schultz and Greg Zanon.  In return they got two new defensemen back, Tom Gilbert and Steven Kampfer.

The cap hit for Nick Schultz was $3.5 million, while the cap hit for Zanon was $1.9 million.

The salary they got in return is $4 million dollars for Gilbert, and $852,000 for Kampfer.

The deal involving Schultz for Gilbert moves a solid defensive D-man for a solid offensive D-man.  Both are 29 years old, both have this year and two more remaining after that.  It was a solid hockey trade for a team struggling to move the back from the blue line (Minnesota) and a team that needs solid defense on their blue line behind the high-flying young forwards (Edmonton).

The deal that sent Zanon packing was clearly a "get what you can before you let a guy walk" move.  The depth at the defense position for the Minnesota Wild is more than abundant and there was no chance Zanon would be brought back next year, as he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

The real question is: Do these two moves and the Zidlicky deal made a few days before the deadline signify an attempt at the playoffs this year, or was it clearing some salary to try to make a splash in the offseason?

With the talent the Wild boasts in their prospects and the cap flexibility these moves will bring about (two of the players that came to Minnesota from the Zidlicky trade are unrestricted free agents who will most likely not be brought back) it appears as though Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher is looking to the future.

There are some big-name players that are slated to be unrestricted free agents this upcoming offseason.  The biggest name for Wild fans is, without question, Zach Parise.  Parise is a Minnesota native who Wild fans have been talking about for the past couple years with the fact that he has not signed an extension with the franchise that drafted him in 2003: the New Jersey Devils.

Parise has 52 points (23 goals and 29 assists) through 62 games this year and would most certainly help the Wild in the area that they struggle most: goal scoring.

Another player the Wild could focus on is Dustin Penner.  Limited to just 19 games in the 2010-2011 season and having only 13 points (5 goals and 8 assists) this season, he might be the type of player the Wild could get on a fairly reasonable contract, after he put up 93 goals over four years in Edmonton a few years back.

A third possibility for the Wild to focus on would be another big name defenseman in Ryan Suter.  While that would certainly crowd the blue line further, no team can argue that having Suter wouldn't be a big plus.

It certainly appears, however, that the moves made this season are geared toward finally filling the need for a high-powered scorer.  Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher certainly appears to making all the right moves with this franchise, stocking the cupboard with prospects and bringing in more talent through trades.