Wild sign Hartman to 3-year extension

Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin continues to take care of business ahead of time.

The club signed forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year contract extension with a cap hit of $4 million on Saturday.

The Wild signed fellow 2024 unrestricted free-agent forwards Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno to multi-year extensions last Friday.

Hartman put together the two most productive seasons of his career after moving from wing to center ahead of the 2021-22 campaign. He set career highs that season with 34 goals and 31 assists in 82 games, then produced 37 points in 59 contests in 2022-23.

While Joel Eriksson Ek is regarded as the team's most complete pivot, Hartman once again projects to center the team's top line between Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov in 2023-24.

The Chicago Blackhawks selected Hartman 30th overall at the 2013 NHL Draft. He spent time with the Nashville Predators and Philadelphia Flyers before signing with the Wild as a free agent in 2019.

Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex Goligoski, Brandon Duhaime, and Pat Maroon are the Wild's last remaining 2024 UFAs.

Minnesota now projects to have approximately $12 million in cap space next offseason in what will be the final year of the bloated buyout cap hits for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The combined dead cap hit will shrink from $14.7 million this year and next year to just $1.6 million in 2025-26.