Zaitsev wouldn't be a 2nd pairing guy on the Wild. I liked him quite a bit in the first year with TOR, but have no idea how he could have fallen off so much. Thought he was mediocre last year...and at the size of his contract, not many teams can afford him being mediocre. Maybe he's ready to rebound...in some ways he reminds me of Scandella, but I always thought Scandella was good, but had a couple of so-so years because he was playing with untalented D partners, and/or had nagging injuries.Zaitsev is a decent second-pairing RHD. Had a poor year last year, after injury, mono... but his play recovered some late in the year, and playoffs. I know you don't particularly like the player, probably based on what you saw mid last year, but I'd expect he shall rebound. The challenge being, we need to add to our RHD, not swap them around... and Zaitsev + Kadri is an overpay, unless something decent is coming back to us. Perhaps... Nino + Spurgeon for Kadri + Zaitsev + ??? Assuming we can move Nylander to C
Bottom line, though is that Zaitsev doesn't have any value to MN, and certainly doesn't equate to adding Nino from our side. That's absurd.