Subscribe
Follow Us
The Marco Rossi saga continues to drag on in the State of Hockey, and the young RFA forward remains without a new contract from the Minnesota Wild in the dog days of summer.
Wild general manager Bill Guerin provided a non-update on contract negotiations with the 23-year-old earlier this week, and it's clear the sides are still far apart on what a new deal should look like.
With a potential training camp holdout looming, a couple of Pacific Division teams have showed renewed interest in the Austrian, as RG's James Murphy reported on Thursday.
“According to two different NHL sources, the Vancouver Canucks and the Seattle Kraken recently circled back with the Minnesota Wild to see where they stand in their contract talks with restricted free agent center Marco Rossi,” the hockey insider wrote.
An NHL source told Murphy that both teams were “in on” Rossi this summer, and that “they’ve made it clear that if it gets to the point in the next month, where contract talks between Rossi and the Wild reach a point of no return, they want to see what it would take to acquire Rossi.”
The Canucks already reportedly made an offer for the 5-foot-9, 192-pound forward, but were turned down. It isn't clear what Vancouver offered, but it's not a secret that the club is looking to upgrade at the center position.
As for the Kraken, Murphy reports that if Guerin were to part with Rossi, he would want to pry leading franchise scorer Jared McCann out of the Emerald City.
Would Kraken part with Jared McCann to land Marco Rossi?
The Kraken have been in existence for four seasons, and McCann has led the team in scoring in each of them. That includes a 22-goal, 61-point showing over a full 82-game slate in 2024-25.
But there have been rumblings that Seattle GM Jason Botterill could look to move the 29-year-old — especially as McCann is entering the fourth season of a five-year, $25 million contract he signed back in 2022.
“I think you make McCann the centerpiece of a package going back to Minnesota,” the source told Murphy. “He definitely fits what Guerin wants, and he can play center, too, if they need. The Kraken have a ton of middle-six guys, but how about a 1-2 punch of Beniers and Rossi? So maybe they can find a match.”
The connection between Botterill and Guerin also can't be ignored; the former was the Director of Hockey Operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008-09, and the latter was still a player on that championship-winning team. The pair also worked under Canucks executives Jim Rutherford and Patrik Alvvin in Pennsylvania.
Although trade rumors continue to swirl around Rossi, Guerin said he feels he is “in a good spot” with the forward. Still, training camp is coming up quickly, and if the two sides can't agree to a deal in the next month, a trade might be the most realistic outcome.
If it comes to that, it'll be interesting to see if Rossi gets shipped to the Pacific Division, or if another club makes a better offer for the former 60-point scorer.
