Wild reacquire Gustav Nyquist, send 2026 second-rounder to Predators

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NHL trade deadline.

With the injury-riddled Minnesota Wild struggling to score and kill penalties and trying to stave off a stumble down the standings amidst a three-game losing streak, general manager Bill Guerin traded a 2026 second-round pick to the Nashville Predators on Saturday to bring back veteran forward Gustav Nyquist.

The move comes less than two years after Nyquist signed with the Predators because the cap-strapped Wild opted to re-sign the less-expensive Marcus Johansson over him. To make the trade work, the Predators are retaining half of the pending free agent’s $3.185 million cap hit.

Guerin will talk to reporters about the Nyquist deal before Sunday’s game against the Boston Bruins, but he did tell The Athletic via text that the acquisition of Nyquist is not an indication that the Wild know Kirill Kaprizov ($9 million) or Joel Eriksson Ek ($5.25 million) will be placed on long-term injured reserve indicating that their regular season is over.

The Wild still hope to have clarity on the timetables for both players in advance of Friday’s 2 p.m. Central trade deadline.

Travel plans from New York were still being worked on, but Nyquist told The Athletic that he plans on making his second “debut” with the Wild in Sunday’s 2:30 matinee against the Bruins.

Nyquist, 35, was initially acquired by the Wild from the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023 for a conditional fifth-round pick while he was sidelined with a shoulder injury. He scored a goal and four assists in three regular-season games for the Wild, then had a team-leading five assists during their six-game first-round loss to the Dallas Stars.

“Listen, I thought it was a great fit for me last time, and I would have loved to have stayed,” Nyquist said during a phone interview with The Athletic. “I loved playing there and had a great time in that short stint that I was there. It didn’t end up being too many games because of my injury, but it’s pretty much the same group of guys now. The only thing that has changed really is the coach.

“But I had a great time with those guys last time and hopefully the fit can be just as good this time.”

Because of the chemistry Johansson had with Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy and because he was cheaper, the Wild re-signed Johansson to a two-year, $4 million contract ($2 million AAV) after the 2022-23 season rather than bring back Nyquist, who signed a two-year, $6.37 million contract with the Predators.

Nyquist scored 23 goals and 75 points in 81 games for Nashville last season. He has had a down year for the 30th-place Predators in 2024-25, scoring nine goals and 21 points in 57 games with a minus-20 rating.

“I loved it here in Nashville. I have nothing but great things to say about this place,” Nyquist said. “But obviously it’s been a struggle this year for us, and at the end of the day, it’s fun to play meaningful hockey down the stretch. So hopefully we can secure a spot in the playoffs with Minnesota and go on a run.”

As rough as life has been for the Predators, they are tied for eighth in the NHL on the penalty kill at 80.9 percent. Nyquist ranks fourth amongst Predators forwards in shorthanded time on ice at 75:04 and averages 1:20 per game. He has gotten 26.6 percent of their penalty kill minutes and is deployed on the fly 69 percent of the time.

His on-ice goal differential while shorthanded is minus-7.

The Wild have lost three consecutive games, scoring five times total in the stretch. They have allowed six power-play goals in four games since the break and rank 31st in the NHL on the penalty kill (70.1 percent).

Nyquist didn’t want to get ahead of himself and predict his role with the Wild.

“I haven’t even talked to Hynesie (John Hynes) yet, so I don’t know where I’ll be playing,” Nyquist said. “What they have stored for me, we’ll see. But if the penalty kill is somewhere they’ll use me, I’d love to help it out. But we’ll take that here as it develops.”

To fit Nyquist onto the roster, Liam Ohgren was reassigned to AHL Iowa. Defenseman Zach Bogosian also missed Friday’s game at Colorado with a lower-body injury, and oft-injured Jonas Brodin left the game hurt. Defenseman David Jiricek was called up, and to fit him the Wild assigned Marat Khusnutdinov to Iowa for the first time in his career. He has two goals and five assists in 57 games and is one of their worst penalty killers.

Required reading

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)