This trade makes the Wild even more TERRIFYING...

A TSN insider, Darren Dreger, reported that the Minnesota Wild would be very interested in trading for Evgeny Malkin. He is currently 40 years old and his contract ends after this season. Wild GM Bill Guerin is ready to move if the price is right and if Geno is ready to move. And Bill Guerin knows exactly the type of player Evgeny Malkin is because they played together in Pittsburgh and won a Stanley Cup together as well. Minnesota is 12-3-3 and first in the Central. Pittsburgh is 5-9-2. And if you're enjoying these breakdowns on all the news around the NHL, go down below, hit that subscribe button around the road for 25,000 subscribers. Personally, I love this trade for the Minnesota Wild because it puts them deeper into cup contention and makes them even more terrifying this season. And it makes sense for Malkin as well. So in this video, we're going to talk about how it works, what could kill this deal, and how this could be Malkin's last chance at a Stanley Cup. Start with what is confirmed. Dreger says that Malkin has to submit a trade list in January. The list is three teams, and the Wild are expected to be on it. Pittsburgh has no immediate plans to trade him, and any talks may be months away. Malkin has also said he wants to finish his career in Pittsburgh. So this is not a done deal, but it's a team telling the league it's ready if the door is open. And that's what makes this trade so fun, because the door might actually open in January. Guerin played with Malkin on the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins team that won the Stanley Cup. He then came back as an assistant GM for the 2016 and 2017 Cups. Malkin won all three of those Stanley Cups, and Guerin was around for each and every one. Kirill Kaprizov is also a good friend and fellow countryman of Evgeny Malkin, and they both trade together. In January, Kipriyosh reported that Guerin might use Kaprizov to recruit Malkin. That is a GM who has the phone number, the history, and a friend in the room. Think about what Malkin has already done and why a fourth cup to him would matter. He won the Conn Smythe and the Art Ross in 2009, the first Russian-born player to win the Conn Smythe. He scored his 500th goal on October 2024, the 48th player in NHL history to get there. He passed 1,400 career points, which puts him 23rd all-time. He has done all of that with one team, picked second overall in 2004. The last cup was in 2017, so he is chasing one that is almost 10 years old. So Gino Malkin, Evgeny Malkin, has all of the stats to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. What is missing, though, is the late chapter, a final season with a real shot at a last cup. The first question we need to ask is if a 40-year-old center can still help a contending team in the Minnesota Wild. Malkin has 6 goals and 11 points this season. That's .79 points a game, which is in the 85th percentile in the league. He is shooting at a rate of 21.4% in the 91st percentile. He is third on the Penguins in points behind Carlson with 16 and Novak with 12. Dan Mews said that when he gets the puck with time and space, he is tough to handle. Trigger says he is playing about 17 minutes a game and still runs on the top power play unit. There is one red flag, though. He is day-to-day with a lower body injury, and he missed one game recently. And you know what? At his age, he's going to have days off. He is back, and both the head coach Dan Mews and star player Sidney Crosby have said he has been the best player on the team this season. Now look at Minnesota. Joel Eriksson Ek is the top line center with 16 points. Kaprizov leads the team with 30 points, and Hughes has 25. Malkin would slot in on the second line here behind Joel Eriksson-Ek, and that is a luxury for a team who's already first in their division. Minnesota just won a playoff series in 2026 for the first time in 11 years. They beat Dallas 4-2, then ran into Colorado in the second round. The Wild are 12-3-3, and the only thing that they are missing is a second-line center who has proven to score in the playoffs. Then steps in Malkin, he has three cups and a playoff series is where his experience is worth the most. Now Kaprizov, he has 16 goals and 30 points for the Wild this season. He and Malkin tied as 24th fastest players to 500 career points and Kaprizov got there in his 413th game. Kaprizov signed a monster deal, an 8-year, $136 million extension, so Minnesota has its franchise player locked in. The best thing the team can do for their star player is to give them a chance while the window is open, and right now it's open, and Malkin would definitely help their chance. Hughes has 19 assists, Eriksson-Ek has 10, and Boldy has 10 as well. Add Malkin to that top power play unit that has just been lethal all year, he can do everything. He can shoot and pass, and this unit would just convert way more often, which is very scary for the NHL. And here's the problem, and it's a big one. SportTrack has the Wild at about $1.15 million of cap space. The mock trade has Pittsburgh keeping half of Malkin's salary, so the Wild will take on $2.75 million. Riley Heit comes back the other way at $940,833, so the net is That is about 1.81 million. That leaves the Wild $657,000 over the cap. So the trade that's drawn up does not fit the salary cap right now, but at $600,000, that's easily a move sent down to the minors, and that's cleared up. The pick part is easy because the Wild still own their 2028 third round pick. The Wilds have until the trade deadline to make the money work to bring Malkin in, and a team that's 12-3-3 will find a way to make this work to bring Malkin in. The mock trade has Pittsburgh getting Riley Heit or Rasmus Kuparinen and a third round pick. That is a small price for a 40-year-old player on an expiring deal. Muse took over in 25-26 and went 41-25-16 for 98 points. They lost in the first round to Philadelphia, and this year they are 5-9-2. The Hockey Writer piece says the Penguins are moving toward a younger roster. A young team can use a prospect and a pick more than it can use a 40-year-old player who may be playing his last year of his career. The bonuses matter here too. Malkin gets $1 million for making the playoffs and $500,000 for every round won. Those numbers only count if he's on a team that can go deep. Now to the other side because there's four ways this falls apart. The first is the Penguins. They have no immediate plans to trade him and Drager says the talks may be months away. The second is Malkin. He holds a no-move clause and he has said he wants to finish in Pittsburgh. The third is the date. The hockey writers in Heavy say the list is due in on January while Trip Live says February 1st. That is a month of difference, so it really matters when this list release because the Wild will only have a few weeks or potentially a month to make a deal work, but I definitely think they can make it work for sure. The fourth is the cap, but it's not that big of a concern. It's not a million dollars. It's under that, so just a minor move to the minor, sending somebody down makes sense here. If one of any of these four things do become a problem, this trade will not be done, but if none do, this will be the best deadline acquisition for the Minnesota Wild. That is why Dreger put it the way he did. This is a team that is ready and a player who has not yet decided if he wants to move. And of course, none of this happens unless Malkin says yes. He signed a one-year $5.5 million deal on May 26th and has a no-move clause. He has played 20 seasons, all of them in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are 5-9-2, and last year they lost in the first round to Philadelphia. A veteran on a one-year deal gets one real say on where he ends up. And that is the moment for Malkin, if he wants to compete for a cup or just end his career as a penguin. If he wants to end his career as a penguin, though, he can honestly sign a one-day contract next year and retire as a penguin and just have one more shot at a cup this year with the Wild. He gets 17 minutes a game in a top power play unit in Pittsburgh, but those minutes are on a team that is 12 points through 16 games. In Minnesota, those same numbers come on a team game with 27 points through 18 games. That's the same players playing the same role, and the second team would put him in the playoff race for real. If Pittsburgh is going nowhere, his list is where he really gets to decide where his last run goes. Minnesota is that team on the list that has the roster, the friends, and the best record in their division. So my call, I personally really love this for the Wild. I think he would be a great fit in Minnesota. And why it works for Malkin is that he's in the last year of his career, potentially. This could be the last chance he gets at winning the Stanley Cup. And I think the Wild are on the way to winning the Stanley Cup this year, personally. He has the friends on the team, and they have the record as well. So this makes sense for a perfect trade for him. Obviously, there is some doubters in this trade as well. The cap, I don't think that's too big of an issue. The big issue is if he wants to leave Pittsburgh. Because obviously, a guy who's spent 20 seasons of his career there might want to hang up the skates in that organization. But who knows? If the Pittsburgh Penguins are on a steady decline like they are right now, I could see him waving to spend his last, you know... Half of his season, or third of his season in Minnesota. So here's what to watch going forward. Obviously, we need to figure out what teams are going to be on that list when he does release in January. I do believe Minnesota will be on it, just because of Kaprizov and Bill Guerin as well. And we also got to watch the Penguins' record, because if they start to climb, they get back into the playoff race in the Metro, then maybe we will see him stay put. But if they keep losing games like they are right now, I think Pittsburgh's going to shift heavy into a rebuild, and Malkin's going to be one of the guys that's going to leave.