Wild sign Yakov Trenin to four-year, $3.5M AAV contract

An experienced forward is heading to the State of Hockey.

On Monday, the Minnesota Wild signed center/winger Yakov Trenin to a four-year contract. The deal will carry a $3.5 million AAV through the end of the 2027-28 season.

The contract is a bit of a pay bump for Trenin. He just finished the final year of his two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.7 million. The new deal is by far the biggest AAV of his career.

Trenin comes to Minnesota after finishing the 2023-24 season with the Colorado Avalanche. He was acquired by the Avs in a trade with the Nashville Predators, the team that selected the Russian forward in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft. Trenin played 16 games with the Avalanche scoring two goals and an assist, registering a plus/minus of +3. He played 10 games in the playoffs with Colorado, scoring a goal with a +1 rating.

Trenin spent the first five-plus seasons with the Predators organization. He became a full-time NHLer starting the 2021-22 season, playing 80 games that year, before playing 86 games with the Preds and Avs this past season, scoring 12 goals and five assists in 2023-24.

In 299 NHL games, Trenin has scored 48 goals and 34 assists, including six goals in 20 playoff games.

Trenin also spent quite a bit of time with the Predators’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. In 155 games, he has scored 40 goals and 47 assists, including four points in eight Calder Cup Playoff games. The former Gatineau Olympique played a chunk of the 2020-21 season in his home country, playing 21 games with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg, scoring four goals and seven points during the loan in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

With the signing, the Wild have 35 players under a standard player contract for next season. According to CapFriendly, Minnesota has less than $3 million in projected cap space for the 2024-25 campaign.