Minnesota Wild News: Wild clear cap space with Cam Talbot on the move

The Minnesota Wild made a tough trade earlier on Tuesday when they sent Cam Talbot to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Filip Gustavsson as Michael Russo of The Athletic first reported.

I do not think many Wild fans are happy to see Talbot dealt for not much of a return besides a 24-year-old goaltender, but this really is a good team for the Wild. Minnesota cleared up some 2.9 million dollars in cap space by trading Talbot to the Senators without holding back any salary. That added to the money the Wild already had open gives the team more wiggle room for free agency tomorrow as well as down the line.

The Wild have their starting goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, and let me say this – having Talbot and Fleury created a really strong goalie tandem that this team could have benefited from next season. However, that is a luxury that the Wild cannot afford considering where they are cap-wise thanks to the buyouts of Parise and Suter.

While the return here was not great it was the cap space that the move created that really matters. When looking at it from that perspective, the fact that the Wild did not have to hold back any salary or give up a draft pick in order to get the Senators to take Talbot was a win at the end of the day.

All things considered, this was a good trade for both sides. The Wild cleared up some cap space that they can use in free agency or just hold for the start of the 2022-23 NHL Season, and the Senators find their new goaltender after dealing their goalie Matt Murray to the Toronto Maple Leafs just a day ago.

With this move, the swapping of goalies in this league continues, and I do not think we are done just yet. It was interesting watching the Blackhawks trade Fleury to the Wild, then seeing the Maple Leafs trade Petr Mrázek to the Blackhawks, after that, we saw Toronto trade for Matt Murray of the Senators and now the circle closes with Ottawa trading for Talbot from Minnesota.

This has been an interesting offseason and it is just getting started! Cannot wait to see where things go when free agency starts on Wednesday!