Quoting: PGHBOB69
Rask looked good in Carolina!! What happens if he scores 20 goals again. And 30 plus points. And Ek doesn’t score 10 again and less than 30 points again.
And Minnesota will probably keep 4 D right? And 4 forwards?
I think The Wild will keep Suter, Dumba, Brodin, Spurgeon, Parise, Fiala, Johanssen, and Ek.
Zuccarello will be available then.
Rask has been barely serviceable as a 4th line center/13th forward. I'll grant him this, he's got a pretty decent shot and has scored some clutch goals for us. But that is completely offset by the simple truth that he's slower than molasses in January and that is the best thing I can say about his skating. For which we pay him $4M/year to do. If Seattle took him it'd be a Christmas miracle! But otherwise we're stuck with him.
Meanwhile, Eriksson-Ek is one of the best young shutdown centers in the league at only 23 years old. He's already borderline elite, and is only getting better. Even if he never develops a scoring touch, he's still incredibly valuable, just as he is. Scoring is overrated when it comes to centers, as their primary job is to win faceoffs and then secondarily to babysit and insure their wingers don't cough up the puck. That's it.
What it ultimately comes down to is this. Whether he scores or not doesn't mean much as he'll be more important during a cup run than a player like Victor Rask.
Finally, Zuccarello has to be protected because Fenton stupidly gave him a full NMC.
Protection list is as follows.
Parise, Zuccarello, Fiala, Eriksson-Ek.
Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, Dumba.
Kahkönen.