Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Wild continue their reign as the offseason’s busiest team thus far.
Mere days after locking in one of their core centers to a massive contract extension, the Wild turned their focus to their depth pivots on Monday evening agreeing to terms with Nick Bjugstad on a one-year, $900,000 contract extension.
After bouncing around between three different teams over the past three years, the 28-year-old has seemingly found a home in the State of Hockey, which just so happens to be his home state, where he put up a respectable 17 points in 44 games for the Wild last season while starting just 38.4% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
Last year’s resurgence came on the heels of Bjugstad undergoing core muscle surgery in May of 2020 that limited him to only 13 games in the 2019-20 season before the Pittsburgh Penguins ultimately traded him to the Wild that offseason. Now, the Minnesota-native can rest easy with the stability of a role on an up-and-coming team’s offence while, in the process, avoiding the rigours of free agency altogether.
The Wild, meanwhile, can now turn their focus to more pressing matters at hand this summer, a list which includes, among other things, settling on a big new contract for reigning Calder-winner, Kiril Kaprizov.