Marian Gaborik Trade Rumors Persist

Marian Gaborik has been hurt since before the third game of Minnesota's season. Rumors of his impending trade from Minnesota have persisted longer than that.

Since he's been hurt, things have quieted a bit. That seems simple enough. After all, it stands to reason that NHL teams are going to be skittish about trading for a player who has a history of leg injuries and is missing significant time with a "lower-body" injury (I think you can safely assume it's a leg problem).

Tuesday, TSN's Bob McKenzie posted a rather interesting item, and it seems to have caused more than a few Wild fans to perk up.

There is a rumor out there that the Minnesota Wild are on the verge of trading Gaborik. As in any hour or day now, it's that close. ... Of course, we should mention that Wild GM Doug Risebrough attended last night's Ottawa Senators-New York Ranger game in Manhattan. For what that is worth.

Not exactly true, but very close.

Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did offer a bit of a follow-up, clarifying Risebrough's alleged attendance at the Garden.

Doug Risebrough was on the Ottawa-Rangers press box seating chart, but he never made it to the game. He planned to scout the game, but flight problems forced him to detour to Pittsburgh. He was in Pittsburgh by 4:45 yesterday.

Russo goes on to note that the Senators and Rangers both make sense as places the Wild could send Gaborik. He notes that Sens GM Bryan Murray "loves making blockbusters". Risebrough is tight with Rangers GM Glen Sather. Montreal has also been mentioned as a possibility, though I haven't heard much about them lately. Perhaps there simply is nothing there, or maybe the Habs have lost whatever interest they may have had.

Newsday notes that the Rangers are tight against the salary cap, so they'd have to dump some salary to bring in Gaborik. I doubt the Wild would be willing to just take on random salary to make a deal work, so the likelihood is that the Rangers would have to make a secondary deal first to free up the space.

In the end, Wild fans need to face facts. It's going to be tough for Minnesota to get market value for Gaborik. He has missed 14 games in a row for the Wild, counting Tuesday's tilt with Pittsburgh. Even if his "lower-body" injury isn't terribly serious, his conditioning isn't going to be where it needs to be, and there's a chance the injury will linger. Since a trade is likely contingent on Gaborik's new team being able to re-sign him, I doubt this deal is going to happen until Gaborik is healthy.

What if, you say, the Wild are holding Gaborik out so he doesn't get injured/re-injured? Well, I find it hard to believe that Gaborik's agent would sit back and do nothing while a healthy-enough-to-play Gaborik was held out of the lineup for over a month. With Gaborik in a contract year and about to cash in big, no self-respecting agent is going to let that go. And even though the Wild were 10-4-1 before Tuesday's game, I find it hard to believe Risebrough and Jacques Lemaire would hold a healthy Gaborik out of the lineup.