Jonas Brodin’s defensive talents are among the best in the league.
You can understand why the Minnesota Wild ended up locking down the veteran blueliner on a contract extension that will pay him $6 million per season until he’s 35.
He is a difference maker in his own end. He’s not a prolific offensive influence, but in a world where true shutdown defencemen — defenders who really do make things impossible for the opposition forward trying to get to the net — are as rare as spirit bears, it make sense that he’s getting paid.
Sure, you can quibble with the term, especially when the aggregate picture shows you Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter already locked in on long-term deals, but in the near-term it makes sense.
And yet, committing to Brodin long-term surely will now uncork another question: how will Wild GM Bill Guerin handle Matt Dumba?
With Brodin, Spurgeon and Suter now all on contracts that have no-movement clauses, unless Guerin can convince one of Spurgeon or Suter to waive their NMC protection and be exposed to next summer’s Seattle Kraken expansion draft, Dumba will either find himself left exposed and almost certainly selected by the Kraken or dealt away as part of a trade sometime before the draft.
The trade seems far more likely, given the value he’d return. Leaving him exposed would return nothing to the Wild.
Dumba is a two-way force. (A three-way force, really, giving his bold leadership this summer as part of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, forcing the NHL to say that Black Lives Matter.)
There will be plenty of teams calling Guerin, inquiring after Dumba’s services.
He doesn’t have to trade the veteran blueliner, who is signed for three more years at an average annual value of $6 million, right away.
He’s a defenceman who would make the Canucks’ blue-line corps immediately better. A right shot, he would make a fascinating potential partner for Quinn Hughes.
Of course, to add a player of his calibre would require a price to be paid, even if Guerin’s hand is somewhat forced by the looming expansion draft.
Brock Boeser’s role is in flux. If the Canucks re-sign Tyler Toffoli, Boeser’s name will immediately heat up on the trade market. There’s just no denying that.
Everyone knows he’s a poor match for the Horvat line. His two-way talents — which are very underrated — made Adam Gaudette a whole lot better when Boeser was deployed on his wing, but Boeser is being paid like a top-six winger, not a depth scorer.
His cap hit is similar to Dumba’s so it wouldn’t be hard to make the financials work.
The fact that Boeser’s signed through 2021-22, when his qualifying offer will be $7.5 million just to retain his services, is a bit of a wrinkle on the Canucks’ side too: 2021-22 is the first season of the next deals for Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, two contracts that are expected to be in the range of $10 million per season each.
Anyway, this will be a situation worth watching on both ends.
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