Minnesota Wild: Looking Back At The Vegas Expansion Draft

Hindsight always gives you perfect clarity. For the Minnesota Wild; looking back at the Expansion Draft when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the league – hindsight suggests they might do things differently, given a second chance.

The former Minnesota Wild General Manager, Chuck Fletcher gave up Alex Tuch in return for the Vegas Golden Knights taking Erik Haula.

Now granted, at the time Alex Tuch hadn’t done anything of note in the NHL, or even in the American Hockey League. He was a relatively untested quantity.

They made Eric Staal, Matt Dumba and Marco Scandella available; Vegas didn’t have to co-operate and take the prospect and Haula pairing.

Imagine losing Eric Staal, looking back at the season he just had. Lose him in the expansion draft, put a chip on his shoulder and maybe it’s a 42 goal season, maybe it’s 45! Or worse still, maybe he’s flipped to a Minnesota Wild divisional rival that needed a little more center depth. Hindsight places this as a worst case scenario.

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Looking at the prospect they gave up, Alex Tuch; he’d done alright at Boston College, offering up a 34 point year across 40 games in the NCAA. He’d then put up 37 points in 57 games with Iowa in the AHL. Nothing really to write home about.

The Minnesota Wild couldn’t have predicted him finding chemistry with his new Vegas teammates so easily. They couldn’t have predicted that given some decent NHL ice-time, he was going to be able to offer up the exact same number of points in the higher league. He could just as easily have flopped in the elite tier of hockey.

In Erik Haula, the Minnesota Wild did know what they were losing. It was the saving on the salary cap that made him a good option. If only Zach Parise could’ve been convinced on his no-movement clause, I know you’re all saying.

Haula, though, had never offered anything beyond 34 points in a year, but much like his former Minnesota Wild teammate and current Vegas running buddy Tuch, he saw increased NHL ice-time and suddenly is a 50 point-plus player.

Hindsight on these guys, as we said, is perfect. In hindsight, it was a hefty price to pay in the expansion draft. Equally though, Staal was a 70 points-plus guy last year and was just as available to the Golden Knights. Matt Dumba netted 50 points too whilst playing tough defensive minutes; he was also available.

Fact is that there really was no easy options for the Minnesota Wild. Whilst they did give away a lot, depending how you look at it, they still didn’t give away as much as they could’ve.