In yesterday’s iteration of Elliotte Friedman’s “30 Thoughts” column, Friedman reported the first big news of Minnesota’s offseason. Trade speculation surrounding Nino Niederreiter is heating up throughout the league.
This is slightly surprising. Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher gave the impression at his end-of-season press conference that he wasn’t prepared to make huge changes to his team. This would indicate otherwise.
Granted, Fletcher wouldn’t tell Friedman anything other than he was “listening”. But with a reporter as plugged-in as Friedman, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I’d be willing to bet that Niederreiter is indeed available.