Judd's Hockey Show - A Minnesota Wild Podcast
Could Minnesota Wild trade Jesper Wallstedt for this PROVEN top center?
29 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What trade involving Jesper Wallstedt is being discussed?
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Hockey. Yeah. My favorite. It's Judd's Hockey Show.
Whoa.
That's hockey show. It is the extravaganza. It is the full strength, Joe. That's debatable. It is Judd. It is, of course, Jesse Pierce. NHL.com covers the wild. Also, Bar Down Beauties, which you can find right here on the Score North Network. AJ Fredrickson, as always. And have we got a juicy talking point for you today.
But before we get to that, I want to talk to you about a very important thing. Because you know what I've heard? I've heard... I've heard some stuff about the fact, you know, that you can't stay, dine, and unwind all in one place. And Sports Dan's here to tell you that is incorrect. Mystic Lake is a place where you can do all of those things. It's the hat trick of fun. It all starts on the floor.
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Chapter 2: Who is the mystery player that could be acquired in the trade?
So that's the other reason that I think this is out there is because you look at the teams that the Minnesota Wild are competing with in the National Hockey League in the division. So that was one thing. I'll scream at my children now. Please, yes, let's carry on.
I just want to make it clear. Nothing bad is going on. This is just the mooring. Well, arguably, they're getting ready for school. So pretty bad.
It doesn't sound like it does. It doesn't sound damn like they're doing a damn thing out there.
That's what's happening. Jesper stayed over, and he's very upset. He's like, don't talk about this.
The penalty box is full. There's going to be. It's just scary. I mean, five minute majors going on.
I mean, whatever's going on back there. It sounds like the Kachuk household circa 2002.
That is what I'm doing. I am raising future Kachuks. It's essentially what's happening.
There is a lot of angst in that house right now. That's a lot of angst. Anyway, Age, the floor is yours.
So I do want to point out like this might sound and I can already see the comments after I say this hypothetically. That's never going to happen. This would never happen. There's no way that guy's getting traded. Well, I think two months ago, I don't think anybody thought in a blink of an eye that Quinn Hughes would have the possibility of coming into the show. So let's just walk with me here.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of trading Jesper Wallstedt?
You need some real good sides. What are the sides? What are the sides that you're, at least if you're Bill Guerin, calling the centers up with?
Here's what I'm going with. Because you've got to make it juicy. And this is going to sound like a lot. But this is going to... Well, Quinn Hughes was a lot. Yeah, you're right. Jasper Wallstead goalie. Yep. You're you have to offset some of the cap stuff. Like it has to work that way. So Ryan Hartman is going to go to Ottawa in this deal. His 4 million AAV.
He's got the 10 team, no trade list, but I'm going to assume Ottawa is not on there. And frankly, yeah, Maybe it is. I don't know.
Is this because Ryan Hartman broke Tim Sousa? You can't have those guys on the same team, but it also just makes the most sense.
It also makes the most sense in terms of making the cap work. In addition to that, player-wise, you're going to throw in a Charlie Strammel. In this situation, I'm banking on his resurgence and how good he's looked this season in college. is going to show them, hey, you know what, we're replacing with Ryan Hartman, also a good goaltender, a young up-and-coming guy with size.
He's bigger than Tim Stutzla. They might like that more. A lot of teams do. And I'm also going to throw in my perennial wild trade guy, Aaron Kibiharu, who is coming off a very solid World Junior Championships because they're going to have to spice up that back end as well. they don't have maybe the best prospects prospects moving forward, but they have a few that are like Jake Sanderson's great.
They've got some good guys right there. He's going to be a good depth guy. And I'm throwing in the 2027 first round pick and the 2026 third round pick for Tim Stutzla and James Reimer in return, because you're going to have to have some sort of goaltender to back up. Your guys' thoughts.
Yeah. Jesse, go ahead. Juicy. This is very juicy. I mean, it's a lot.
It's a lot, right? It's a lot, but it says, Hey Colorado, what's up? Like, I mean, truly like that's, that's the thing. It is like, Hey, we're here. You up still around here. That's yeah. Right. Like, yeah, I wouldn't say no. I would, I would absolutely entertain that idea. It's, it's hard to say again, but that's what cup contenders do. You want to win.
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Chapter 4: How valuable is Jesper Wallstedt to the Minnesota Wild?
Yeah. Yeah.
So here's my thought. First of all, I don't know if this deal gets done. The offer is incredibly attractive. Stutzel is so good that it's still going to be tough. And the one thing I hate, you guys, is this. This is where the Eastern Conference being so jammed up is a problem. So the centers really aren't good, okay? They've got 57 points.
But the reality is the two wildcard teams, Montreal and Boston, have 65 points. So the centers are still close. All of that being said, though, this is, in my opinion, it's a fair offer.
and and it's intriguing and you go through the list of so if valsa's being shopped which we which we now believe to be completely true like like he's being dangled he might not be traded but he's being dangled if you guys go through the list of the athletic put this out yesterday okay so it's basically it's their top 40 board of tradable players it is trochek
It is Shane Wright, and I'm just pulling out the centers here just to be clear, okay? Okay. It's Shane Wright, Robert Thomas, who we all like. Sorry.
I want him so bad on this team. He's so good. I want him. Okay, here we are.
Charlie Coyle, Boone Jenner. It's a list of good players. Stamkos, Pedersen of the Canucks, Jason Dickinson, who we just saw, Braden Shen. In fact, our guy, my guy, ROR, Ryan O'Reilly of Nashville is 40th. But my point is from that list, how many guys jump off the list and say, you know what? I would trade Volstead for this guy.
And that's where I get sort of hung up because I like Trochek, but Trochek is just as the primary example because he is second on this list to Artemi Panarin, who is one. And of course, he's a wing. Trochek is 32th. he's not a UFA till 2029. He's got a $5.6 million cap hit, but you know, I'll come back to his age. He's 32.
So that, you know, I guess Robert Thomas is the one name that does stick out as far as he's 26. His cap hit is 8.1 mil, which is a good, which is a bargain now compared to where with where the, salary cap is going, and he is not a UFA till 2031.
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Chapter 5: What do the hosts think about the potential trade's realism?
Robert Thomas is going to be very, very expensive. Is this, and eventually St. Louis is going to have to move off of their goaltending situation, right? Like Jordan Binnington, they're going to eventually have to part ways with that whole thing over there. But yeah, I get the values. You don't really have any other players that have value like Esper does. So that's why his name is,
is there you don't, I mean, right. Like that's actually movable.
Like that. Not like that. You got some assets to trade, but I think what AJ said is right. Those guys are probably the seasoning on like, what is, what's a quantifiable thing. Yeah. And Volstead is.
And the thing about it too, is you can, you know, you can play four different centers on any given night. You can only play one goaltender. Like he's not going to do you all that great sitting on the bench behind Gustafson. Granted, if he's in the game and he's, you know, shutting out,
Dallas in the first round and that's one thing but I the one I want to see them almost take away the decision that we've seen in past years where And granted, I think this was under maybe Dean Everson or Bruce Boudreaux's final season where it's like, you've got two really good tenders. What's the plan there? Do you feel like you need to go back and forth?
I'm okay with you just forcing yourself into a hole and saying, this is our best guy. No matter how he's playing, we're going to go with him in the playoffs. And then whatever you get in return is on the ice. But if they don't make a trade or something like that, and they have Jesper Wallstead into the playoffs,
And a report comes out that the biggest name that they maybe were searching out there and the biggest name that was in the mix was like a Vinny Trocek or less. I absolutely can live with them not making a trade for them. The list for trading Jesper Wallstedt for an actual name is of the guys available.
I think it's Robert Thomas and then some of the unexplored names that haven't been necessarily on the market, which is why the element Elliot Friedman quote is just so intriguing.
Last question. How would you guys feel if we wake up before the deadline in, what, the first week in March, and they have traded Volstead in a deal for Trocek?
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Chapter 6: What are the pros and cons of trading for a top center?
That's because you need somebody there up in the middle. Amen.
And happy birthday to Ek, by the way.
Today? Today, according to Elite Prospects, yeah. See, I'll have to go tell Ek. 29.
He's 29. He's 29 in years.
Oh, my God.
His body is approximately 62 today. He was in. He was the wild first round selection in the Caprizov draft. He was drafted in the same draft as Connor McDavid.
Ahead of Brock Besser. To which we bitched and moaned for several seasons.
How sad do you think Brock Besser is that he went back to Vancouver at this point? That was a decision. It's funny. We mentioned Ben Hankinson. I know Ben. He's great. I had a conversation with him. He's like, it surprised even me. I had no idea. All of a sudden, he just kind of was like, nope, I want to go. And I think Besser is just a loyal guy like that. So I think part of that played into it.
But I do believe Hank when he was like, I had no idea that he wanted to go back.
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