Minnesota Wild: Time to Learn from Past Mistakes
By Turner Olson
The Minnesota Wild can learn from past trade deadline deals that have left the team with a huge talent gap. These deals have left the AHL affiliate in Iowa devoid of talent leaving the Wild with a huge issue that needs to be turned around.
In attempts to bolster the team’s run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Minnesota Wild have made deadline deals in the past four years that have severely decimated their prospect pool. Trades that have seen draft picks move, like the two second round picks for Matt Moulson and another pick for Chris Stewart and top prospects Matt Hackett and Johan Larsson along with a first and second rounder for Jason Pominville. These trades have not really worked out (with the exception of Pominville) and have certainly not brought the team any closer to winning the Stanley Cup than they were before.
Taking this into account, the team needs to learn from past mistakes and not be overly eager to deal the talent they have acquired the past few years. It is frankly surprising the Wild is not in even worse shape for the future given GM Chuck Fletcher’s apparent eagerness to part with second round draft picks. And the future will look even worse if he continues to trade prospects or draft picks for players who almost certainly will not lead to a Stanley Cup.
What makes holding onto assets even more important is the nature of the current core players in Minnesota. Pominville, Koivu, Suter, Parise, and Staal are all on the wrong side of 30 and one has to wonder how much each has left to give before they become nothing more than an overpaid veteran (Pominville could already be in that category) who must be replaced with a younger, more capable player.
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Currently the Wild possesses players who are capable of stepping up when the time comes to move on from those veterans. Players such as Reilly, Folin, Tuch, and Eriksson Ek look like future NHL contributors. But that could change if Fletcher continues his habit of dealing away young talent before the Wild even gets a chance to see what they can do at the NHL level.
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Although it may be tempting to say the Wild should trade one of its young defensive or forward prospects for a proven NHL scorer, the team should focus on the big picture for once. The best sports franchises focus on building their organization from within and adding to that core with smart moves in free agency. That is how you consistently find yourself in the playoffs. And in the NHL where lower seeds make Stanley Cup runs all the time, that should be the goal, odds are it will eventually bring a Stanley Cup to Minnesota for the first time.