The Minnesota Wild have signed veteran defenceman Jonas Brodin to a seven-year, $42-million contract extension. The deal begins in the 2021-22 season and carries a $6-million cap hit.
Brodin, 27, set a new career-high with 28 points this season and a plus-15 rating in 2019-20. In 555 NHL games over eight seasons with the Wild, he has 146 points, 890 blocked shots and a plus-47 rating.
BRODS!
The #mnwild has signed defenseman Jonas Brodin to a seven-year contract extension.
» https://t.co/8jhQvHuHRT pic.twitter.com/LRy9sTsVbh
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) September 15, 2020
Brodin is entering the final year of a six-year, $25-million contract that began in the 2015-16 season. The Wild now have four defenceman tied to long-term, big-money contracts, including Jared Spurgeon (seven more years, $7.5-million cap hit), Ryan Suter (five more years, $7.5-million cap hit) and Matt Dumba (three more years, $6-million cap hit).
With the salary cap staying flat for at least two more seasons and GM Bill Guerin saying publicly he wanted to upgrade in net, the possibility that one of these defencemen is traded has come up in the annual off-season rumour mill.
In a recent episode of his podcast, Wild insider Micahel Russo of The Athletic reported the team was actively shopping Dumba. Now with Brodin locked up and Spurgeon and Suter each holding no-movement clauses, the rumours surrounding Dumba will likely only get louder ahead of the start of next season.