{"id":354102,"date":"2026-06-10T03:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T03:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354102\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T03:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T03:17:08","slug":"wild-re-sign-michael-mccarron-to-six-year-20m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354102\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild re-sign Michael McCarron to six-year, $20M deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Minnesota Wild<\/a>\u00a0signed center Michael McCarron<\/a> to a six-year, $20 million contract on Tuesday, taking one of their impending free agents off the market after his productive arrival following a\u00a0mid-season trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s become an integral part of the team. I know in the locker room he\u2019s a very popular guy with his teammates, and most importantly, the way he performed on the ice proved to us that he was somebody that we wanted to be in business with for the foreseeable future,\u201d general manager Bill Guerin said. \u201cBetween the way his teammates feel about him, the way the coaching staff feels about him, the way I feel about him and his desire to stay here, it just made it a perfect fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old McCarron played in 20 regular-season games for the Wild after he was acquired from the Nashville Predators for a 2028 second-round draft pick on March 3. The six-foot-six McCarron had his best\u00a0NHL\u00a0season between Nashville and Minnesota in 2025-26, setting career highs with 109 shots on goal, 205 hits and 77 blocked shots. He had two goals, two assists, 27 hits and a team-leading 14 blocked shots over 11 games for the Wild in the playoffs. He also won 54.5 per cent of his faceoffs.<\/p>\n

After the Wild lost stalwart center Joel Eriksson Ek to a\u00a0broken foot\u00a0in the series-clinching win over Dallas in the first round, McCarron’s role increased while playing on the second and third lines during the second-round series loss to Colorado. Even if his long-term fit is best on the third or fourth line, McCarron showed Guerin and the Wild coaches he won’t be a liability if asked to take on more responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cSize, right shot, penalty killing, his faceoffs, all those things. Mike\u2019s just a center. That\u2019s what he is,\u201d Guerin said on a video conference call with reporters. \u201cIf I\u2019ve learned one thing over the last 15 years on this side of the business, it\u2019s that anybody can play wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drafted in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens in 2013, the late-blooming McCarron made $900,000 this season on his expiring contract. The new deal through the 2031-32 season will carry an annual average value against the salary cap of $3.33 million. He’d never signed a contract longer than two years until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything from top to bottom was right up there with the top of the league, I would say,\u201d said McCarron, a native of Michigan who spent five-plus seasons with the Predators. \u201cFrom my very first step in there to my last, it was a great experience for me, and there was no point in looking elsewhere in free agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

With McCarron signing in advance and Marcus Johansson having opted to return to his roots and play in the Swedish Hockey League, the Wild have two unrestricted free agents of significance remaining: forwards Nick Foligno and Vladimir Tarasenko. Guerin has promised to be aggressive this summer in continuing to try to upgrade the roster in pursuit of a Stanley Cup with their core of stars \u2014 forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy and defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber \u2014 in their prime years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in a great window right now, and that\u2019s why I did want to stay,” McCarron said. \u201cWith the Minnesota Wild, it gives me and my teammates a great opportunity to go chase that thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Minnesota Wild\u00a0signed center Michael McCarron to a six-year, $20 million contract on Tuesday, taking one of their impending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-354102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}