Report: Wild acquire Coleman, Maatta from Flames for Middleton, picks
Some veteran experience is heading to the State of Hockey.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Minnesota Wild acquired forward Blake Coleman and defenseman Olli Maatta from the Calgary Flames. In exchange, the Flames are receiving defenseman Jake Middleton, a second-round pick in the 2029 NHL Draft, a third-rounder in 2027, and a 2028 fourth-round pick. The Flames are also retaining half of Coleman’s $4.9 million cap hit.
Coleman and Maatta join a Wild team that is on the rise and is making strides to establish itself as a top-tier contender in the Western Conference. The team just won its first Stanley Cup Playoff series since 2015, beating the Dallas Stars before losing to the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in the second round.
Both players bring a championship pedigree to Minnesota. Coleman was a key piece in helping the Tampa Bay Lightning win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, while Maata also won consecutive championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
While both are on the Back 9 of their careers, Coleman can provide some depth in the forward group. He has reached 30 points in all but one of his full seasons in the NHL, including scoring 20 goals and 35 points in 69 games this past year. In 693 career regular-season games, he has notched 170 goals and 325 points, with another 31 points in 65 playoff contests.
The 34-year-old is heading into the final season of the six-year contract that he signed with the Flames in July 2021.
Maatta joins Zach Bogosian as the elder statesman on the back end, and is most likely going to join him on the back end. He finished the 2025-26 season with the Flames after being dealt by the Utah Mammoth ahead of the trade deadline. In 43 total games, he posted two goals and 13 assists for 15 points. In 804 career regular-season appearances, he has notched 44 goals and 166 assists for 210 points, with another 27 points in 85 playoff affairs.
Maatta also represented his country at the Winter Olympics in February, helping Finland win the bronze medal. Maata has two more years on his three-year contract that he signed with the Mammoth in March 2025, with the deal carrying a cap hit of $3.5 million.
The one notable aspect of the trade coming on the second day of free agency is that Middleton, who had a full no-move clause in the first season of his four-year contract extension, had a modified no-trade clause kick in on July 1. Middleton was required to submit a 15-team no-trade list. Clearly, the Flames weren’t on that list. He still has three more seasons on his deal, with an AAV of $4.35 million through the 2028-29 campaign.
The 33-year-old has seen his play dip in recent years. This past season, he scored just two goals and 14 assists for 16 points in 75 games, his lowest point total in three years. He also had a plus/minus of +2 while averaging 17:30 of ice time. He appeared in all 11 of the Wild’s games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, registering just one assist, with a -2 rating.
In 381 regular-season games in the NHL, the Calgary, Alb. native has 24 goals and 94 points, with six assists in 29 postseason contests.