Like some of their peers, the Wild wasted little time jumping into the free agent pool, signing heavy wing Yakov Trenin, who played most of the past five seasons in Nashville — nearly four of them under current Minnesota head coach John Hynes.

The deal, first reported by Michael Russo of The Athletic, is worth $3.5 million annually over four years and was confirmed to the Pioneer Press by a league source. Trenin finished last season with 12 goals and seven assists in 76 games.

General manager Bill Guerin has been looking for help up front, particularly on his back two lines, and Trenin, 27, is one of the NHL’s better defensive forwards, a career plus player who was a combined plus-15 with the Predators and, after being traded to Colorado at the deadline, the Avalanche.

On Friday, Guerin traded Vinni Lettieri to Boston for bottom-six forward Jakub Lauko.

In the playoffs this spring with Colorado, Trenin had one goal and 37 hits in 10 games. He finished last season with 207 hits and has averaged 193 over the past four seasons.

Marcus Foligno, limited to 55 games by a core injury last season, led the Wild with 179 hits.

Capuano added to staff

The Wild added former Islanders head coach Jack Capuano to Hynes’ staff as associated head coach on Monday. He had spent the past five seasons as associate head coach in Ottawa.

Capuano, 57, spent two seasons as the Florida Panthers’ associate head coach (2017-19) and 12 seasons with the Islanders organization — serving as head coach for parts of seven (227-192-64 from 2010-17).

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