Wild trade – A day after the Minnesota Wild came up empty-handed in free agency, the team traded Jake Middleton to the Calgary Flames. In return, Minnesota acquired veteran winger Blake Coleman and veteran defenseman Olli Maatta, while also sending draft picks and having C
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the Minnesota Wild, the offseason pivot didn’t wait for summer to start. One day after Minnesota came up empty-handed in free agency, the team traded Jake Middleton to the Calgary Flames on Thursday, swapping for veteran winger Blake Coleman and veteran defenseman Olli Maatta.
The framework was already clear before the names landed: the deal happened in exchange for multiple moving pieces, and negotiations that aren’t public. Middleton’s salary impact and Minnesota’s future draft assets were part of the equation from the start.
Middleton is entering the second year of a four-year contract worth $4.35 million per year. Along with Middleton, Minnesota is sending Calgary a 2027 third-round pick, a 2028 fourth-round pick, and a 2029 second-round pick, while Calgary retains 50 percent of Coleman’s salary—$2.45 million.
Coleman is 34, and his contract runs through 2027 with a $4.9 million cap hit. He won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2020 and 2021, and he delivered production in 2025-26 with 20 goals and 35 points in 69 games.
His time with Calgary has been long enough that most of it feels like tradition now. He spent the past five seasons with the Flames. joining the franchise as a free agent ahead of the 2021-22 season after signing a six-year. $29.4 million contract. The 2021-22 campaign was also the only one in which Coleman made the playoffs with Calgary.
With the Flames. Coleman scored 99 goals and had 199 career points in 392 games—the most games he has ever played for one franchise. Many of those appearances came alongside defensive center and Flames captain Mikael Backlund in a middle-six role that mixed offense with defense. Coleman. a Texas native. has also played for the Lightning. where he won the Cup twice. and for the New Jersey Devils.
For the Wild, Coleman can be expected to add offense in a middle-six role. His track record includes experience on a Cup-winning shutdown line: he played with Barclay Goodrow and Yanni Gourde on a unit that was a driving force during the Lightning Cup runs in 2020 and 2021. He is also described as a strong penalty killer.
Olli Maatta is 31 and was a first-round pick in 2012. Over 13 NHL seasons, he has played 804 games. Last season with Calgary, he posted two goals and 14 points in 21 games after a trade from the Utah Mammoth. Maatta is on a three-year, $3.5 million contract running through the 2027-28 season.
Middleton, 30, is a mobile stay-at-home defenseman who established himself as an everyday player after coming to Minnesota from the San Jose Sharks in 2022. In 322 games with Minnesota, he scored 21 goals and had 82 points. But the move lands after an especially tough postseason.
Middleton was on the ice for 13 goals against in Minnesota’s series against the Colorado Avalanche.
After the season, Middleton described the feeling of replaying everything. “I watch my shifts every game. I go back and watch them,” Middleton said. “There’s obviously times that you make a poor decision and it goes in the net. I don’t think that was the case for the majority of the playoffs. but yeah. it definitely felt like any time a puck went in the net. I was on the ice.
“It was a s—y feeling. You look back, it’s not — how do I say it? If I was making mistakes and I wasn’t playing my balls off, I would feel a lot worse sitting up here talking to you guys. But I do think it was just a situation where they just went in, you know?”
His no-move clause became a modified no-trade clause on Wednesday.
After the deal, the Wild currently hold zero second-round picks in 2027, 2028 and 2029.
The view from Calgary
For the Flames, Coleman was a prime trade deadline candidate after the team stripped its roster of some of its most prominent parts, including MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri. Even so, Coleman remained in Calgary and finished the season helping develop its youth.
Flames fans will remember Coleman as one half of a reliable third-line duo with Mikael Backlund. Both players worked well at both ends of the ice: matching up against opposing teams’ top lines and players while also producing as secondary contributors. Coleman was used primarily as a left-winger, though he has some experience playing center.
Calgary is also making room for the kind of veteran leadership that can steady a younger roster. Coleman’s two Stanley Cup wins from his time in Tampa are part of what the Flames expect to miss when he’s gone. But the message from his career direction is clear: he would rather compete on a winning team now.
As for Maatta, he wasn’t expected to remain in Calgary for long after being acquired at the deadline. Still, the defenseman helped bring back draft picks and a player in return, which is considered a bonus for Calgary. The defenseman’s impact was described as solid in a limited number of games.
Draft picks are central to Calgary’s thinking here, but the Flames’ need runs deeper than that. They also need players who can help usher along their youth movement. Middleton could fit that role as a stay-at-home defenseman who can clean up mistakes by Calgary’s younger. attacking puck-moving defenders. Zayne Parekh or Simon Nemec. if it comes to that. As Calgary hopes to build a winning culture, Middleton is expected to provide that bridge.
From a financial perspective, the Flames come out pretty well by retaining only half of Coleman’s $4.9 million cap hit. That retention is only for the upcoming season, and the retention spot will be returned in the summer of 2027.
Minnesota Wild Jake Middleton Calgary Flames Blake Coleman Olli Maatta NHL trade Stanley Cup Mikael Backlund Barclay Goodrow Yanni Gourde MacKenzie Weegar Nazem Kadri
Wild really just traded for dudes from Calgary, huh. Hope it doesn’t backfire.
So they traded Jake Middleton and got Blake Coleman and that other defense guy… sounds like a win but I’m confused on the picks part. Why give up a 2029 second round??
I don’t get it, Middleton was on a decent deal and they still had to pay people off? Also it says Calgary keeps 50% of Coleman’s salary, but like who cares, it’s still on the cap right? Maybe I read it wrong.
Wild trading in August vibes already. Coleman won Cups in 2020/2021 so that’s cool, but 34 is kinda old… unless he’s magically still in his prime. And the article keeps saying “negotiations aren’t public” which just means fans won’t understand it anyway. I swear every offseason move is just salary math and draft picks disappearing.