Year on year it seems, the Minnesota Wild think they’ve got a strong chance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Year on year, they’ve been willing to make bold moves at the trade deadline, often dealing picks. What’s become of them?
Although trading picks for win-now players goes further back for the Wild, the recent trend started back in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. The Minnesota Wild had a pair of first round picks and a second round pick but then weren’t back on the board until round five.
The trend from there has been that the Minnesota Wild never quite have a full draft quota of seven picks, one in each round; 2012 being the one exception to that rule with Matt Dumba falling to them with their 1st round pick (7th overall).
2013 saw no first round pick for the team, with the now-traded Gustav Olofsson their first name off the board in the 2nd round (46th overall).
In 2014, the first round pick remained intact, but the second round one didn’t. Likewise in 2015, except this time, the first and second stayed but the third round option didn’t.
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As you can see, it’s quite the trend for the Minnesota Wild not to get seven picks, or at least not the originally allocated seven picks. In 2014 and 2015, they picked seven times, though it was by virtue of having multiple picks in the latter rounds, rather than the typically more useful early rounds.
Possibly the worst year in terms of draft options was 2016; the team picked Luke Kunin in the first round (15th overall) but then didn’t pick again until the fourth round, 91 places later.
Following that pick, it was another wait of 90 spots until the first of two seventh round draft picks for them.
2017 saw the no first or second round pick for the team, with Ivan Lodnia in the third round (85th overall) the first name off the board for the Minnesota Wild.
Finally, most recently, the Minnesota Wild did draft a first round pick, but not a second round one. This was however somewhat offset by three third round picks.
Either way, it’s definitely a trend that played out under former General Manager, Chuck Fletcher. The team rarely had a full draft board; we look at what those missing picks were turned into, starting all the way back in 2011.