In addition to the high profile signing of free agent goalie Cam Talbot, the Wild added a pair of minor leaguers on Friday.
Forward Joseph Cramarossa and defenseman Dakota Mermis both got two-way deals that are worth the NHL minimum $700,000 with the big club or $160,000 at Iowa.
Cramarossa (pictured, at left) has played for Vancouver and Anaheim in the NHL, with four goals in 59 games. The 27-year-old spent last season in the American Hockey League with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Rockford and had seven goals in 51 games. Wild GM Bill Guerin was Cramarossa's boss when Guerin was assistant GM in Pittsburgh, which has Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as its top affiliate.
In 336 AHL games with five teams, the 6-foot, 195-pounder has 37 goals and 47 assists. He was a third-round (65th overall) pick of Anaheim out of Belleville (OHL) in 2011, and made his NHL debut on Oct. 23, 2016.
The 26-year-old Mermis scored his first NHL goal on March for the Devils. He has played in 20 NHL games for Arizona and New Jersey. Mermis spent most of last season with Binghamton of the AHL, scoring three goals and adding 16 assists in 53 games. He was captain of Arizona's AHL affiliate in Tucson the year before, and in 304 AHL games with three teams the six-footer has 13 goals and 74 assists.
Mermis played briefly at Denver before signing with London of the OHL, where he won a league championship in 2013. He also won an OHL title in his overage season in 2015 with Oshawa, after which he signed a free agent deal with the Coyotes. A native of Alton, Ill., Mermis also played for the U.S. national development program and in the USHL with Lincoln and Green Bay.
