The Minnesota Wild have acquired veteran blue liner Zach Bogosian from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2025 7th round pick.
The deal follows an earlier trade which saw Minnesota send defenseman Calen Addison to the San Jose Sharks for winger Adam Raska and a 5th rounder in 2026. With a spot on their blue line suddenly open, Wild GM Bill Guerin sought out the 33 year old former Stanley Cup Champion to add some grit and leadership to his roster.
Standing 6’3” and weighing 231lbs, Bogosian brings a solid netfront presence to the table, with some sandpaper to his game to boot. While limited to just 166 games over the past 4 full campaigns, the former 3rd overall pick from 2008 has accumulated 166 PIMs during that span.
Not known for his offensive output (his career best season saw him tally 5G, 25A back in 2011-12), Bogosian will likely serve as a bottom pairing defenseman for the Wild moving forward. The deal comes with little risk for Minnesota as the Massena, NY native is in the final year of his contract and sports an AAV of $850K.
The Wild have been without captain Jared Spurgeon to kick off the 2023-24 season due to an upper body injury, leaving a bit of a void on their back end.
Minnesota will be a new setting for the well travelled defender. However he’ll have some familiar faces to greet him upon arrival as well. Former teammate Pat Maroon is currently on the roster, while Bogosian’s brother Aaron works in the Wild’s analytics department as well.
The team currently sits in 5th place in the Central Division with a 5-5-2 record. They’ll next be in action on Thursday evening in a 7pm ET showdown at Madison Square Garden.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: amccoy012. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.