![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_25880748-1024x683.jpg\")
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Michael McCarron was leading the Predators this season with 165 hits and has averaged over 52.8 percent on draws in all of his five NHL seasons. Steve Roberts \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n
March 3, 2026Updated 9:33 pm EST<\/p>\n
One day after adding Robby Fabbri off waivers as they try to reshape their fourth line, the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday acquired 6-foot-6 center Michael McCarron from the Nashville Predators in exchange for a 2028 second-round pick, according to league sources.<\/p>\n
McCarron, who turns 31 on Friday, is in the final year of a contract with a $900,000 average annual value. Wild coach John Hynes coached McCarron for parts of three seasons in Nashville.<\/p>\n
The move is a clear indication that the Wild haven\u2019t been pleased with Nico Sturm\u2019s play. McCarron is a big body who plays a heavy game and has an edge, leading the Predators with 165 hits. He\u2019s also good on draws, winning 53.8 percent of them over the past five seasons, and is a good penalty-killer. He\u2019s amassed 275 penalty minutes in the past three seasons and is known to drop the gloves.<\/p>\n
With Marcus Foligno week-to-week with a lower-body injury, McCarron will fill a physical role for the Wild, along with league hits leader Yakov Trenin.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaceoffs are one element of his game that we really like,\u201d Wild president and general manager Bill Guerin said Tuesday. \u201cHynsie\u2019s had him before, so there\u2019s some comfort there with the coach and the player, which I think is good.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bigger body, heavier guy. But he gets around the ice. He\u2019s a good penalty killer, and he\u2019s very competitive, which is attractive. So there are a lot of elements to his game that we like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the Predators, McCarron played for the Montreal Canadiens from 2015 to 2018. He\u2019s played in nine career playoff games \u2014 three with Montreal and six with Nashville.<\/p>\n
He has five goals and 12 points this season and is averaging a career-high 14:30 of ice time per game.<\/p>\n
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Mar 4, 2026<\/p>\n
Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
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Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael McCarron was leading the Predators this season with 165 hits and has averaged over 52.8 percent on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4828,4826,385,99],"class_list":["post-503077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}