Minnesota Wild Trade Target: JJ Peterka

The Minnesota Wild enter the offseason with a decent amount of cap space and money to spend for the first time in a long time. They are expected to make some big changes.

We will see what those big changes are.

One guy who has been in rumors forever is Wild center Marco Rossi. He is coming off a career year that saw him rank second on the Wild in points with 60. He is a pending restricted free agent and the Wild have to make up their mind on what to do with him. 

It certainly seems like the two sides have had trouble agreeing on his value. The Wild demoted Rossi to the fourth line in the playoffs and despite scoring two big goals, the Wild kept him there. 

This is created some confusion on Rossi's part on how the Wild view him. Do you want to sign long-term or even short-term with the Wild if they view you as a fourth line center in the playoffs? 

This is where trade talks have come in and what is Rossi's value?

One team that could be interested in Rossi would be the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres moved Tage Thompson to the wing during the 2024-25 season and have Josh Norris, Jiri Kulich, Ryan McLeod and Peyton Krebs as their centers. So, Rossi could fit in nicely in Buffalo. 

In a similar situation, it seems like the Sabres have had a falling out with their 23-year old winger JJ Peterka. Elliotte Friedman said on his podcast 32 Thoughts that "people know Peterka's unhappy and it's believed he'd like to go somewhere else."

Peterka is the same age as Rossi and is in the same spot. He is an expiring restricted free agent and needs a contract. According to AFP Analytics’ projections, Peterka could get somewhere around $7.8 million per year on a seven-year deal.

The only way the Wild should entertain a trade is if you know what you could get Peterka signed for. It seems like it is roughly around the exact same thing as Rossi and what he wants. 

Peterka is coming off a season in which he recorded 27 goals, 41 assists, and 68 points in 77 games. He recorded 28 goals and 50 points the season before in 82 games. 

But Peterka is a winger and not a center. 

He finishes at a high rate and drives a lot of offense at 5-on-5 for him and his line mates. That being said, the defensive side of his game may need a little bit of work. 

Rossi is around the same spot but is much better defensively. 

If the Wild trade Rossi for a winger they would be banking on rookie Danila Yurov to have an immediate impact. Or hoping Ryan Hartman can provide top-six scoring. 

If you did Rossi for Peterka the Wild's potential lines could look like this:

Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Mats Zuccarello

Matt Boldy - Danila Yurov - JJ Peterka

Marcus Foligno - Ryan Hartman - Liam Ohgren

Marcus Johansson - Freddy Gaudreau - Yakov Trenin

Nonetheless, Peterka is young and skilled. If the price is right and makes sense for the Wild, they should look to him as a potential trade target.