Wild sign forward Marcus Johansson to two-year extension

A few short days after their season came to an end at the hands of the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild have announced they will be bringing back forward Marcus Johansson into the fold. The contract will be a two-year, $4M deal, extending Johansson through the 2024-25 season.

In his second tenure with the Wild, Johansson was a critical forward down the stretch in Minnesota’s playoff hunt. After being acquired from the Washington Capitals at this year’s trade deadline, Johansson played in 20 games, scoring six goals and 12 assists. Just as importantly, he brought his exceptional careeer possession numbers, providing the Wild a Corsi For % of 52.2.

Heading into the offseason, Minnesota finds itself in an increasingly difficult salary cap situation. Due to the past buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, the cap penalty will increase from $6.37M per player to $7.37M per player, taking almost $15M away from the Wild’s available cap. After signing Johansson, Minnesota still has five players headed for unrestricted free agency (three forwards, two defensemen) and five players headed toward restricted free agency (three forwards, one defenseman, one goalie).

Up to this point, taking into account the massive cap penalty given to the Wild due to their past buyouts, general manager Bill Guerin has done a good job assembling a roster worthy of consistent playoff contention. He will have to continue to remain creative throughout this process, and bringing back Johansson on a relatively cheap contract is one way to get that started.