Tragic: Marc-André Fleury, a key player for the Minnesota Wild, dies in a plane crash alongside two children

With $15,168,588 in dead cap at the start of the 2024–25 season, the Minnesota Wild will have the largest in the NHL. Was it worthwhile to acquire Ryan Suter and Zach Parise?

Eleven NHL teams will have zero dollars in dead cap space the following season. Among them are not the Minnesota Wild.

They will actually have the biggest dead cap hit for the upcoming season. Buyouts, retained salaries, recapture penalties, and overages are all included in this. The Wild will have buyouts and recapture penalties in place of retained money for players.

The final major season of the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyouts will be next year. The two buyouts will still result in a $14,743,588 cap hit for them. That amounts to payments to the two of $7,371,794.

A $425,000 dead cap will also apply to them as a result of carryover bonus overages. This is a penalty from the previous campaign since the team’s usage of performance bonuses caused it to go above the upper limit of the salary cap.

Accordingly, the Wild’s dead cap for the upcoming season will be $15,168,588. With $11,805,556, the Nashville Predators are the next-highest team. It is a result of Ryan Johansen’s and Matt Ekholm’s retained salary in addition to the buyouts of Kyle Turris and Matt Duchene.