The only issue with this is Minnesota would have over $18m tied up in LHD. If Philly retained salary, this might work if the Wild used Ghost in sheltered minutes with a lot of PP time. It also highly depends on Patrick's health, the Wild might be more interested in Frost given Patrick's health.

Switch it to next years 1st and Frost instead of Patrick and you got yourself a deal

Yeah, I pretty much agree about Patrick's health. They need to be certain he isn't a dud player because of his migraines if they're giving up Dumba. Conversely, I can understand Philly wanting to keep Frost over Patrick if he can't stay healthy.

Otherwise, I'm fine with Ghost's cap hit coming back. I feel the Wild could reasonably spend up to $22M on it's defense and still have enough left over for our forwards. Preferably keeping it at around the $20M mark or under.

Devils decline

How do you only spend up to $22m on defense when $21m is tied up for Suter, Spurgeon, and Brodin alone beyond next season?

To be fair Ghost is capable of playing RD. His career year 65 point season came from playing RD with Provorov. Do agree Minnesota would be asking for Frost instead of Patrick just bc of the health concerns can’t take that risk. Philly has a little more leeway to be patient with Patrick since they have Couturier and Hayes with Laughton capable of playing 3C.