Cap space is a major factor in this deal, and must be considered part of the return for Minnesota.

The Wild admit to themselves that Kaprizov won't want to stick around while they try and figure things out. They send him to Detroit, which appears to have a brighter future ahead of them at the moment, saving a ton of money going forward. They get LW Berggren, 37 points in 34 games in the AHL, desperate for a chance to play in the NHL, 8th OA in his year C prospect Marco Kasper, a 2024 1st, and RD Justin Holl, just to give them some freakin' stability on RD. Boldy moves up in the pecking order, and more moves to come, like Maroon and Duhaime probably, and Fleury maybe. Roster with Spurgeon out but forwards healthy:

Gustavsson - Fleury

Brodin - Faber
Middleton - Holl
Goligoski/Merrill/Chisholm/Bogosian

Boldy - Eriksson-Ek - Zuccarello
Berggren - Hartman - Johansson
Foligno - Rossi - Gaudreau
Maroon - Dewar - Duhaime

Det gets Kaprizov, pretty simple. They will be able to afford him going forward, even with Seider's extension, as guys like Perron and Gostisbehere will be up, if not traded at the deadline (Perron?). The options are endless for the future. Extend Kaprizov when he is due and he, Raymond and one of Larkin or Danielson will make a killer line.

Walman - Seider
Chiarot - Petry
Maatta - Gostisbehere

DeBrincat - Larkin - Kane
Kaprizov - Compher - Raymond
Rasmussen - Copp - Sprong
Kostin/Fabbri - Veleno - Fischer

The Wild have good players, but to me, they just don't seem to be built right, and could use a serious re-tool. No disrespect to them, but a center rotation of Eriksson-Ek, Hartman and Rossi isn't inspiring any dreams of a Stanley Cup to me. Boldy is great, Faber rocks, Rossi could still become something nice but won't be Auston Matthews or anything. With cap space at hand, even more once the horrendous buy-outs are off the books, the Wild could spend to the limits in a few years again after getting younger players and picks in the meantime.

Wings fan here, this is a big underpay in my opinion for the red wings. Marco Kasper's ceiling is probably a good 2C, Berggren probably tops out at a 2LW, Holl is a bottom pairing Dman and the first round pick would probably be in the 16-20 range with the wings getting the boost of Kaprizov this year. I just dont think that's enough to get an elite 100+ point NHLer. Wings would definitely have to throw in one or more of danielson/asp/edvinsson to get this done.

This is a humongous underpay for one of the more explosive players in the league. Wings should be looking to consolidate some of their guys though, especially with the way their D is set up. And Holl is a negative asset with that contract, especially to Minnesota who is hurting for cap space.

And yes, cap space is a major factor for Minnesota, if they're going to dump someone to re-position their cap space, it's going to be Brodin, its not going to be their superstar.

Not sure what is more laughable this "trade" or the fact that you have Kaprizov on the second line behind Debrincat...

Yes, obviously, even Wings fans admitted, this was a feeble attempt lol. I'll grant you that, but your 2nd line comment, nah, that's just keeping the DeBrincat/Kane connection together. One of the biggest reasons Kane chose Detroit was to play on a line with DeBrincat again. When Kane moves on, if he doesn't re-sign, then Kaprizov and DeBrincat become Larkin's wingers. That's the idea mate. And if you wanna swap the wingers so Cat and Kane are 2nd line, fine. Meant to be a "no real 1st or 2nd line" kind of thing, equal usage and ice time etc.

Waiting for the flood of Wild fans loosing their mind because Kaprizov being traded LoL