F Jason Zucker (Minnesota Wild)
Remarkably, despite fleecing Minnesota last year in the Victor Rask for Nino Niederreiter deal, the Canes have been linked to multiple Wild players over the last couple months.
First they were linked to Jonas Brodin, but those rumors have kind of tapered off over the last few weeks. They were also mentioned to have inquired on Matt Dumba, but the talks were “too large” to happen in-season. Canes fans have mentioned Eric Staal. But now, we move on to Jason Zucker.
Michael Russo, the Wild writer for The Athletic (who’s a very trusted source) mentioned on his podcast on Saturday that the Hurricanes were one of “a few teams” that are inquiring on Jason Zucker. Hilariously, he also implied that Wild owner Craig Leipold may “block the trade”.
Zucker has scored 14 goals and 29 points in 45 games this season, and is just 2 years removed from a 33-goal campaign in 2017-18. He’s signed through 2023 at a 5.5 million dollar cap hit, so a trade for Zucker would be a trade for a guy in his prime years who’s under contract until he’s 31.
He’s a former teammate and a former linemate of both Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter, so he seems like a possible fit and could re-kindle his chemistry with those guys. However, he’d be another left-shot in a Canes forward group that’s devoid of righties.
As a player, Zucker is a speedster who’s scored 20+ goals in 4 of his 5 full years in the NHL thus far, and is on pace for his 5th 20-goal campaign this year. As mentioned, he scored 33 in 2018, but that seems like an outlier and he’s probably more of a 20-25 goal guy. Just look at his speed:
It took Jason Zucker exactly 10 SECONDS to score in his return to the lineup! Catch the @mnwild NOW on #FOXSportsGO: https://t.co/PUxqJBgshs pic.twitter.com/ZxZeqvrjC7
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) April 7, 2017
At a 5.5 million cap hit, that’s a decent return on value – he seems to be a 20-goal, 40-45 point guy at this stage of his career. Maybe playing alongside guys like Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen could accelerate his point totals, but Zucker’s overall hockey sense has been questioned repeatedly and he’s been relegated to the Wild’s 4th line as of late.
I could potentially see him having success with the Canes, but I’m not sure it’s a risk worth taking considering his 5.5 AAV over the next 3 seasons. With Carolina free to extend Andrei Svechnikov and Dougie Hamilton after July 1st 2020, as well a long list of impending free agents, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for them to take on Zucker’s contract.
It could be possible that Carolina would look to move out money from their books to alleviate for Zucker, but I just can’t personally envision a scenario that makes sense. It’s also rather doubtful that Minnesota would move him for cheap, and it’s been speculated they’d covet a first-round pick in return.
It’s good to hear about the Canes brass doing their due diligence on all available options, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on a Zucker deal coming to fruition. Personally, I don’t feel the risk is worth the reward here, although he could be a nice fit in this Canes group.