dearth of centers on the unrestricted free-agent market<\/a> and the 2013 first-round pick looking for the first significant payday of his career. McCarron, a father of two, has never made more than $900,000 in a season.<\/p>\nStill, it\u2019s a reasonable cap hit for a player who would have been one of the top available centers.\u00a0McCarron likely could have gotten bigger offers on the open market with a different structure to his contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut (Wild general manager and president of hockey ops) Billy Guerin and the Wild showed Mike soon after the season how much they were prioritizing signing him, and that meant a lot to Mike,\u201d Arnott said. \u201cAnd like he said all along, he prioritizes winning and believes the Wild can win.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarron made a big impact on Minnesota in his short stint, helping in the faceoff circle and on the penalty kill and chipping in key goals in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-6 right-shot center was on the ice for four goals in 20 regular-season games and five in 11 playoff games. He won 51.4 percent of faceoffs after coming to the Wild in the regular season and 54.5 percent in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The fact that McCarron, 31, chose to sign with the Wild before seeing what was out there in free agency is telling. He did say after the end of the season that he wanted to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, obviously, you have a GM and coach who wanted me to come in here and help the team, and when someone gives up what they gave up to get me, I think it shows that \u2014 how much they wanted me. So try to return the favor,\u201d McCarron said. \u201cAt the same token, I think I\u2019m at a point in my career where I haven\u2019t really taken that next step financially or had quite the security, I\u2019d say. I guess that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Detroit kid, so being back in the Midwest has been eye-opening. It\u2019s fun to be back. The weather is not all that great, but you can put those things aside when you have a really good hockey team and a great group of guys. And my family and I have loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerin said McCarron became an \u201cintegral\u201d part of the team after coming over at the trade deadline and that between what McCarron does on the ice and how teammates and coaches feel about him, he\u2019s a \u201cperfect fit,\u201d which is why the Wild wanted to get it done before the center went to market.<\/p>\n
McCarron prioritized term in this deal, Guerin said, but the fact that he chose to stay over exploring other options said something.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that about Mike,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cHe really wanted to stay here. He believes in what we\u2019re doing. The business side of it is one thing, but when a player really loves it here and feels we have something good going on, that means more to me than the financial part. The investment he and his family were making in their lives with us means more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took McCarron several years to find his identity in the NHL, finally turning the corner with the Predators a few years ago, with now-Wild coach John Hynes behind the bench. He wondered if he\u2019d ever get back to the league after entering the NHL\/NHLPA player assistance program in December 2022, but he became a key role player and \u201cglue guy\u201d for Nashville, which led to more than 10 teams inquiring about him at this season\u2019s trade deadline, per league sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prioritize winning,\u201d McCarron said. \u201cI haven\u2019t won anything. I mean, I\u2019ve won a World Championship and a Memorial Cup, but that was 15 years ago, and a men\u2019s World Championship, just a short little stint in your long career, where the success of my NHL career hasn\u2019t really been what I\u2019ve wanted. So winning a Stanley Cup has always been my goal. Coming here, it was a great opportunity, too. You know, it feels like if you got past Colorado, you\u2019d have a really great chance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wild have a number of other unsigned potential free agents, including Mats Zuccarello, Vladimir Tarasenko, Nick Foligno and Zach Bogosian. They have mutual interest in each, especially Zuccarello, but it\u2019ll be interesting if the Wild take a step back now with so many balls in the air, including trying to trade for Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild have signed Michael McCarron to a six-year, $20 million contract ($3.33…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-693874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693874","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=693874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}