In one of two moves at the trade deadline, the Minnesota Wild have acquired defenseman Jordan Leopold from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Justin Falk and a 5th round draft pick.
Falk requested a trade out of the Wild organization after only finding his way into 13 games this season, according to the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo. With the emergence of Matt Dumba and Christian Folin in what appear to be close to full-time roles, Falk wasn’t in line to see much ice time down the stretch despite being the team’s only left handed defenseman outside of the top four.
Justin Falk, whom I am told by sources asked to be traded, was dealt for Leopold and a fifth #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 2, 2015
Leopold was brought in to fill that void. He’s a left shot defenseman who is a Minnesota native and a former University of Minnesota Gopher. (#OneOfUs and what have you.) He actually played on the Gophers with Keith Ballard, whose injury is part of the reason the Wild needed to grab a depth defenseman.
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Over the weekend we discussed the reasons for and the reasons against getting Leopold, but the ayes have it and he’ll be joining the team presently. He’s in the final year of his contract carrying a $1.007M cap hit. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
In 25 games played this season he has one goal, two assists, and a 44.7% CF%, which is a -3.5% CF%Rel split between seven games with the Blues and 18 with the Blue Jackets. In 677 career NHL games he has 67 goals and 146 assists.
He’s not a big sexy trade, but he does address team needs and could actually be used as insurance while the Wild have had injury issues and practiced Monday without either Jared Sprugeon or Marco Scandella. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t actually replace anyone on the team’s active roster when they’re completely healthy and finds himself a scratch a fair amount down the stretch. It’d still be a good bet for the team at this point, knowing that if they lose a defenseman at some point their depth thins out very, very fast on defense.
Also, a letter from Leopold’s daughter asking the Wild to bring him home has been circulating since it appeared on PA on the Mic (KFAN radio show) this morning. Take a look at that below.
The real winner of the trade deadline: Jordan Leopold's daughter. http://t.co/Mv53gHkrp7 pic.twitter.com/LrWjpXgtGk
— SB Nation NHL (@SBNation_NHL) March 2, 2015
For their part, the Blue Jackets came out of this all right. They traded a 5th round pick to the St. Louis Blues for Leopold earlier in the season and have managed to turn deadline fervor into a win. They get a warm body in Justin Falk, someone they should get a shot at re-signing if he fits their needs, and they get a fifth round pick back. It’ll likely be a little lower of a fifth round pick than what they started with, but it’s certainly a win in the end.