Wild remains relatively quiet ahead of NHL Trade Deadline

ST. PAUL -- Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher was so confident in his team's recent play that he didn't feel the need to make a splashy addition ahead of Monday's NHL Trade Deadline.
With his team riding a four-game winning streak and a five-game point streak, Fletcher and the Wild chose to stand pat, instead clearing roster and salary cap space for some internal additions down the stretch.
"We certainly had some interesting conversations, I will say that," Fletcher said. "You just want to be careful. You can bring certain players in, and then who gets bumped off the power play, or who gets moved down in the lineup. We didn't feel that anybody was a significant upgrade."

With Luke Kunin playing well in Iowa and the potential addition of Jordan Greenway at the conclusion of Boston University's season, Fletcher chose to keep his current group mostly intact.
Fletcher also cited forwards Kyle Rau, Landon Ferraro, Cal O'Reilly and Zack Mitchell, as well as defenseman Carson Soucy -- all currently in Iowa -- as reasons not to trade away valuable draft picks for other teams' rental players.
"We think we have players that can bring some youth and some energy and some grit and compete. I don't think we can understate those attributes down the stretch for our team," Fletcher said. "I thought that was one thing our team lacked last season in March. We played a lot of hockey and battled hard all year. We had a really tough stretch and I just remember thinking it'd be great if we had a 20- or 21-year-old we could bring in to maybe give us a shot in the arm."
As recently as a couple of weeks ago, the Wild was up against both a roster and a salary-cap crunch. At the maximum 50 contracts, the Wild made a minor-league deal on Feb. 8, trading forwards Mario Lucia and Christoph Bertschy to New Jersey for defenseman Viktor Loov.
On Monday, forward Chris Stewart was claimed off waivers by the Calgary Flames, then Minnesota traded defenseman Mike Reilly to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

In all, Minnesota opened up enough salary cap space to have some flexibility down the stretch, while also adding roster space to sign Greenway, if it so chooses.
"To pay big prices right now, from a cap perspective, it wasn't always possible to get involved in some of the players, but it just didn't seem to make sense this year," Fletcher said. "Our first-round pick wasn't in play. We certainly felt it necessary to give our scouts a first-rounder."
Minnesota briefly sent defenseman Nick Seeler to Iowa earlier in the day, making him eligible for the AHL playoffs. He was recalled after the deadline and counts as one of the Wild's four non-emergency call ups.
Seeler is expected to be in the lineup on Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues, as is defenseman Jonas Brodin, who was cleared to return to action after a visit to the doctor on Monday afternoon.
Brodin was hurt against the Blues three weeks ago and had surgery on his hand on Feb. 7. He's been on the ice skating for nearly two weeks and has practiced each of the past two days with teammates.
"Unless something comes up that I don't know about, we're expecting him back and and that will obviously be a tremendous boost to our club," Fletcher said.
Brodin's injury, while unfortunate at the time, allowed the Wild to get a look at Seeler, who has been outstanding in seven games.
Seeler's emergence, along with the return of Brodin, the presence of Gustav Olofsson and the addition of Loov, in addition to the play of Soucy and Ryan Murphy in Iowa, made it more palatable to part with Reilly.
"You never welcome injuries, but with that injury, I hate to say the term 'discovered' Nick Seeler, but sometimes players just need an opportunity. And Nick has acquitted himself well," Fletcher said. "It's a tough league and they'll start to scout him and opposing coaches are smart and he'll have to make some adjustments. Sometimes when you do have injuries you're allowed to build your depth and you find ways to integrate different players in and long-term I think it's worked well for us."
Related:
- Wild acquires fifth-round selection in 2019 NHL Entry Draft for Reilly - Watch: Wild's reaction to Calgary claiming Stewart - Watch: Jonas Brodin skates with team