Minnesota Wild acquire center Michael McCarron in a trade with the Nashville Predators

Returning to Minnesota after the Olympics when the U.S. team he constructed won gold, Wild general manager Bill Guerin left open a lot of possibilities he could explore ahead of the NHL trade deadline.

He also did not shy away from the area he wanted to improve the most.

“Yeah, our faceoffs,” Guerin said earlier this week. “Our center position is extremely important.”

Guerin made a move to address that concern Tuesday night, acquiring 6-foot-6 center Michael McCarron from Nashville. Minnesota sent a 2028 second-round pick to the Predators to complete the trade.

McCarron, who turns 31 on Saturday, has won 52.8% of his faceoffs through 59 games this season. The Wild are second-worst in the league in that category at 46.2%.

Getting McCarron is the second addition in as many days for the Wild, who on Monday claimed forward Robby Fabbri off waivers from St. Louis. But they may not be done.

Guerin did his blockbuster trade in December by getting elite defenseman Quinn Hughes from Vancouver. That included center Marco Rossi going to the Canucks, depleting the Wild’s depth there while getting better on the blue line.

Adding someone who can play in the middle on one of the top two lines is still an option. While McCarron is a rental pickup on an expiring contract with a salary of $900,000, Minnesota has been linked to New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, who is signed for three more seasons after this one at $5.625 million.

Trocheck, 32, was a key piece of Guerin's forward group at the Olympics, killing penalties and defending on the way to the country's first men's hockey gold medal at the Games since 1980. Trocheck has been open about his desire to stay not far from the East Coast where his family is, and Minnesota may be close enough to work even though it's the Western Conference.

Acquiring Trocheck would cost significantly more than McCarron but also give the Wild better chance to get through the Central Division in the playoffs, likely needing to go through Dallas and Colorado to get to the West final.

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AP freelancer writer Mike Cook in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

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