One down, two to go.
The Wild signed center Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year, $42 million contract on Friday, the first of three re-signings the team prioritized this offseason.
Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala are the other offensive leaders up for new deals.
Eriksson Ek's contract carries an average annual value of $5.25 million and runs through 2028-29, making him the longest-signed player on the Wild. A 10-team, no-trade list kicks in for the second half of the contract, a source confirmed, and the deal dwarfs the $2.975 million Eriksson Ek earned over the previous two seasons.
His performance on the ice the past year explains the raise.
A defense-first forward early in his NHL tenure after getting drafted 20th overall in 2015 by the Wild, Eriksson Ek became a consistent catalyst in the offensive zone after an offseason makeover placed him at the top of the team's depth chart up the middle.
Gone were former captain Mikko Koivu and veteran Eric Staal, creating more minutes and responsibility for Eriksson Ek, and the 24-year-old capitalized on the opportunity.
He recorded a career-high 19 goals that ranked third on the team behind Kaprizov (27) and Fiala (20), after not scoring more than eight in any of his previous four NHL seasons. His 30 points were also the most in his Wild career; same with his plus-minus (plus-16) and average ice time (17 minutes, 3 seconds). Eriksson Ek also led the Wild in faceoff wins (395), was second in hits with 105 and third in shots (119) before tying for the most goals in the playoffs against Vegas with two.
While emerging as more of a scorer, Eriksson Ek remained steady defensively and thrived in a two-way role -– so much so that he finished fourth in voting for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward. Eriksson Ek mostly anchored a line with wingers Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno, a trio that faced the stiffest competition and yet was one of the Wild's cleanest defensively while also regularly producing offense.
Not only did Eriksson Ek make among the most defensive-zone starts on the team for forwards, but the number of goals the Wild gave up per 60 minutes when Eriksson Ek was on the ice was lower than most of his teammates.
Overall, the 6-3, 208-pound native of Karlstad, Sweden, has 43 goals and 53 assists for 96 points in 266 NHL games.
But this isn't the only re-signing on the Wild's radar.
Fiala is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, which was Eriksson Ek's status before he re-upped. Also like Eriksson Ek, Fiala is 24 and coming off a two-year contract that earned him $6 million.
Kaprizov's situation is more nuanced; after wrapping up his entry-level deal, he doesn't meet the requirements for restricted free agency or unrestricted free agency. He's only allowed to negotiate and sign with the Wild, is ineligible for an offer sheet from another team and doesn't have arbitration rights.
Earlier this week, Kaprizov was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie after leading the Wild and all first-year players in goals and points. The longest the Wild could sign him and Fiala is also for eight years.
After signing Eriksson Ek, the Wild has almost $17 million in salary cap space for next season, according to salary-tracking websites CapFriendly and PuckPedia. The salary cap ceiling is expected to stay flat at $81.5 million because of the financial hit the NHL took from the COVID-19 pandemic.
