Matt Boldy Signs $49-Million Extension With Cap-Strapped Minnesota Wild

Salary-cap issues? What salary-cap issues?

On Monday, the Minnesota Wild made a strong commitment to their future when they signed forward Matthew Boldy to a seven-year contract extension which carries a cap hit of $7 million per season.

Boldy, 21, is currently in the final season of his entry-level contract. He is fourth in scoring on the Wild this season, with 12-17-29 in 42 games.

A native of Milford, MA., Boldy came up through the U.S. National Team Development Program. After being drafted 12th overall in 2019, he spent two seasons at Boston College before turning pro with the AHL’s Iowa Wild on March 30, 2021.

Boldy made his NHL debut just over a year ago, on Jan. 6, 2022. He made an immediate impact, scoring the game-winning goal in Minnesota’s 3-2 road win over the Boston Bruins. He finished his inaugural NHL campaign with 15-24-39 in 47 games, and his 0.83 points per game topped all rookies with more than 10 games played. But with only a half-season of games on his resume, he finished eighth in voting for the Calder Trophy for the 2022 rookie of the year.

This season, the Wild are carrying more than $12.7 million in dead cap space on their books. In July 2021, general manager Bill Guerin decided to buy out the last four years of the twin contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, each with cap hits of more than $7.8 million a year.

Teams throughout the NHL are struggling to stay under the league’s hard-cap ceiling, set at $82.5 million this season while the players repay their debt to the owners following the revenue drop caused by the pandemic. After Guerin put himself in an even tougher spot, he seized the opportunity to put a cost-controlled youngster like Boldy into his top six, and his player has thrived.

The Wild have made the playoffs in nine of the last 10 seasons, but haven’t won a round since 2015. Now in his fourth season at the helm, Guerin hasn’t allowed his cap constraints to prevent him from trying to set up his squad for a meaningful run.

Last season, that meant acquiring three-time champion goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury at the trade deadline, then signing the now-38-year-old to a two-year contract extension in July. In November, he acquired heart-and-soul tough guy Ryan Reaves in a trade with the New York Rangers.

Despite their financial challenges, the Wild are in a comfortable spot as the NHL regular season passes its midpoint — nestled into third place in the Central Division with a record of 24-14-4 for 52 points in 42 games. They have a cushion of seven points over the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, and are eight points ahead of the Nashville Predators.

And while 17 of the NHL’s 32 clubs have been limited in their ability to accrue cap space by operating in long-term injured reserve this season, per CapFriendly, that has not been the case for the Wild.

CapFriendly estimates that Minnesota has the cap space to acquire more than $16 million in contracts at the March 3 trade deadline, if Guerin chooses to try to upgrade his squad. And with few contending having significant cap space available, this year could be more of a buyer’s market than usual.

“I think the team will tell me what direction we’re gonna go,” Guerin told Joe Smith of The Athletic on Jan. 14. “Like if we’re flying high and we’re doing real well, then we’ll talk about making moves and seeing if we can improve, or maybe we’ll just stay the same. I don’t know. If we’re not doing well, then we’ll have to talk about what to do with that.”

There are two additional seasons of pain ahead. The dead-cap burden of the Parise and Suter contracts will rise to more than $14.7 million in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, before dropping to just $1.67 million in subsequent years.

Next season, the cap is expected to rise once again by just $1 million — unless a last-minute revenue Hail Mary sees the players’ debt to owners fully paid off, in which case a larger bump could be possible. With Boldy’s new deal now on the books, the Wild currently have more than $74 million committed to 14 players for next season, leaving them with less than $9.5 million in space to fill out nine spots on their roster.

Guerin is likely not in a position to acquire a player with term on his contract at the deadline.

Five other players on the Wild roster are set to become restricted free agents at season’s end. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson and forwards Sam Steel, Brandon Duhaime and Mason Shaw will all have arbitration rights; defenseman Calen Addison does not.

Key defenseman Matt Dumba and forwards Ryan Reaves and Frederik Gaudreau are also set to become unrestricted free agents.

Relative to his peer group, Boldy’s deal comes in at quite a reasonable number based on his performance to date. Jack Hughes, who was selected first overall in 2019, signed an eight-year contract extension with a cap hit of $8 million per season on Nov. 30, 2021. He leads that draft class with 162 points through 209 games, but his 0.78 points per game are only a hair above Boldy’s production rate of 0.76 points per game.

Boldy is producing slightly better than Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks. He was selected ninth in 2019 and sits at 0.75 with 106 points in 142 games. Zegras’s entry-level contract expires at the end of this season, and he has not yet signed an extension.

Moritz Seider, the sixth pick from 2019 and the 2022 Calder Trophy winner, has one year still remaining on his entry-level deal. He isn’t eligible to sign an extension until this summer.

From the 2018 draft class, Quinn Hughes leads his group with 0.83 points per game. He signed a six-year deal at a cap hit of $7.875 million on Oct. 1, 2021. Just behind him is Andrei Svechnikov (0.75), who’s at $7.75 million over eight years, and Brady Tkachuk (0.73), whose deal is pegged at just over $8.2 million for seven years.

From the class of 2020, Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle has already signed his second contract, an eight-year deal set at a cap hit of $8.35 million per season.