I just checked out the 2025 UFA defense class, thinking of maybe a Spurgeon trade, and it's... not good.
Even though I am a fan of Brodin, I am leaning more towards trading him instead of Spurgeon. His no-movement clause ends this season, he is younger, and he has a decent cap hit (we could retain $1 or $2 million if we trade him to a cap-tight contender for better value). Both seem likely to miss 10-20 games a season, not that it's either player's fault. Spurgeon is a righty, so that could have more value in a trade, but I think that might be more valuable for us, too, rather than throwing Jiricek into the Top 4 immediately next year. However, he should absolutely get power play time for development. Bogosian will be bought out, waived etc. next year.
Interesting UFA defensemen for me are:
RHS: Ekblad & Fabbro
LFS: Gavrikov & Orlov
Since we have Faber and Spurgeon, I don't see us going for Ekblad; the competition will also be tough. If we trade Brodin, I would try to sign Gavrikov or Orlov; otherwise, trading him doesn't make much sense, as I don't think we will improve on him by simply replacing him with a UFA. I imagine Gavrikov will be sought after by many, so his contract is going to be quite expensive.
If we trade Brodin for a forward and Rossi for a defenseman, there could be more value to be gained. We could get more back from a team that has plenty of forwards but needs a Top 4 defenseman, and perhaps we could find the opposite situation for Rossi. However, I am more interested in keeping Rossi while potentially signing Nelson, so we can run a center core of Ek, Rossi, and Nelson. Next, we need to figure out which of our wingers fit best on a line with whom, which will determine who will be 1C, 2C, and 3C. But overall, I think that center core is pretty strong. But, we are not guaranteed to get Nelson unless he really wants to come back to Minnesota, and it's going to be interesting to see what his contract looks like.
