Excluding Winnipeg, the closest NHL city to Travis Harmonic’s home is Minnesota.
So it makes sense that Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher has reached out to the New York Islanders regarding a trade for the top-pair defenceman.
Hamonic has made public his desire to be moved closer to his St. Malo, Man., home for private reasons, and Isles GM Garth Snow is trying to accommodate his request.
“The root of all this is a personal family matter of mine that I hold dear to my heart,” Hamonic told reporters in New York Thursday, after Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke the news. “It has nothing to do with the organization or how I’ve been treated here for six years of playing and another two or three since I was drafted. I’ve honestly been treated like gold from the start.”
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According to the Star-Tribune‘s Michael Russo, there is little doubt Fletcher and Snow have spoken recently.
“But my understanding is Fletcher has yet to talk to agent Kevin Epp, and the Wild would want to know the reason Hamonic wants to be moved,” Russo writes.
“Regardless, the Wild’s at the cap, has a deep, expensive blue line as it is and can’t just take on a player making a little under $4 million without giving up a significant salary. Also, Fletcher’s first priority I’m told if he were to make trades right now would be to add up front, not on the back end.”
Snow has his share of desirable forwards but is seeking an affordable right-shot defenceman in return for his 24-year-old blueliner.
Hamonic, 25, is locked up through 2019-20 at a reasonable $3.857-million cap hit.
The Wild are hard against the salary ceiling but do have some defencemen of comparable nature. Jared Spurgeon, 25, and Mathew Dumba, 21, are both young defencemen set to become restricted free agents on July 1. Both will require a pay raise. Marco Scandella, a left shot, is the same age as Hamonic and is also signed through 2019-20 at a comparable $4-million average annual value.
