Reports: Wild sign penalty-killing, hard-hitting forward Yakov Trenin

Who is Yakov Trenin and why have the Minnesota Wild reportedly signed him to a four-year contract worth $14 million?

The Hockey News calls Trenin an "elite" penalty-killing forward, while Pro Hockey Rumors refers to the 27-year-old as "arguably the most pure checking forward on the market." His arrival in Minnesota should help improve the Wild's abysmal penalty kill, which ranked 30th in the league at 74.5% last season.

Selected in the second round by the Nashville Predators in 2015, Trenin played for the Preds for four seasons before being traded to Colorado last season. He's 6-foot-2 and is known for his defense, though his offense leaves something be desired as he had just 12 goals and five assists in 76 games last season.

"While he’s effective in his role, $3.5MM is a lot of money to spend for a Trenin-type player for a Wild team that had the 21st-ranked offense last season. With only $6.25MM in projected cap space entering the day, this is likely their lone big-name free-agent acquisition," Pro Hockey Rumors wrote.

Wild head coach John Hynes was on Nashville's coaching staff when Trenin was there, so there is familiarity that Hynes will be able to lean on while getting Trenin acclimated to Minnesota's style of play.

Here's how CapFriendly currently projects Minnesota's lines:

1. Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Matthew Boldy
2. Marcus Johansson, Marco Rossi, Mats Zuccarello
3. Marcus Foligno, Marat Khusnutdinov, Ryan Hartman
4. Yakov Trenin, Frederick Gaudreau, Jakub Lauko

On defense, the Wild project like this:

1. Brock Faber, Jake Middleton
2. Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin
3. Zach Bogosion, Declan Chisholm