For the second time in as many weeks, the Wild leveraged their salary cap space to acquire a draft pick ahead of the NHL trade deadline.
They received a fifth-round selection in this year's draft for their role in a three-team trade that saw defenseman Dmitry Orlov ultimately go from Washington to Boston.
The Wild made a similar move last Friday when they ate up some of Ryan O'Reilly's contract during his move from St. Louis to Toronto while securing a 2025 fourth-round draft pick. Teams can retain salary on up to three players.
In this latest deal, the Wild landed Orlov from the Capitals in exchange for forward Andrei Svetlakov (a 2017 sixth-round draft pick). The Wild then flipped Orlov to the Bruins for a 2023 fifth-round pick after retaining 25% of Orlov's contract, which costs the Wild $86,000 in salary and $338,000 in salary-cap space.
This leaves the Wild more than $2 million shy of the $82.5 million salary-cap ceiling, but since cap hits are prorated, their spending power is much greater: They could take on an approximately $9 million salary-cap hit, according to capfriendly.com. The trade deadline is next Friday at 2 p.m.
To make room for Orlov on their roster while facilitating this transaction, the Wild assigned Adam Beckman to the American Hockey League.
