Paul Fenton has been given the go-ahead to shake up his team's roster.
The Minnesota Wild general manager "has essentially been given the green light to do whatever he sees fit to improve this team either now or for the future heading into the trade deadline," The Athletic's Michael Russo reports.
Fenton has the ability to trade members of the core - including players such as Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, and Jonas Brodin - even if the club ultimately misses the playoffs as a result, according to the report.
Sources told Russo that the Wild's current position has changed from make the playoffs at all costs to "everything's on the board," with the only untouchables likely being Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, the injured Matt Dumba and Mikko Koivu, young players Jordan Greenway, Luke Kunin, and Kirill Kaprizov, and their first- and second-round picks in this year's draft.
Minnesota enters Thursday's action occupying the second Western Conference wild-card spot, but has lost six of seven games since the break.
The Wild have made the playoffs in each of the past six campaigns but have failed to advance past the second round in any of those postseason appearances and have been bounced from the first round in each of the past three years.
Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.