Minnesota Wild: What’s become of the traded draft picks?
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.
The 2011 NHL Entry Draft was the first to be held in St. Paul, Minnesota since the days of the Minnesota North Stars. The Minnesota Wild held onto their first round pick, taking Jonas Brodin 10th overall.
They also picked up Zack Phillips late in the first round (28th overall) having obtained the San Jose Sharks’ draft pick in the move that saw Brent Burns and Charlie Coyle swap teams. That move is one I think Coyle still has to wear today, given the player that Burns has become since joining the Sharks.
So far, so good for the Minnesota Wild. Jonas Brodin is still playing well for the team. Zack Phillips, not so much; he most recently was plying his trade in Hungary for a team that competes in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga after playing a journeyman role in the United States for a short time.
The Boston Bruins were the beneficiary of the Minnesota Wild’s second round pick on day two; the result of the Chuck Kobasew trade made back in 2009. With that pick, Boston grabbed Russian forward, Alexander Khokhlachev.
He suited up in a grand total of nine NHL games for the Boston Bruins and now is happily playing back in Russia in the KHL. Nine games, no goals – not a bad loss for the Minnesota Wild.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty, you look at some of the names that Boston skipped on and are somewhat glad that they didn’t use that pick on Brandon Saad or Nikita Kucherov. The fact they got zero production and less than ten games from the Minnesota Wild pick makes it feel a little better.
David Honzik and Jospeh LaBate were selected in the third and fourth rounds respectively by the Vancouver Canucks, both times having acquired the Minnesota Wild’s draft picks.
Joseph LaBate has become the epitomy of a consistent AHL performer; nothing more, nothing less and these days plays for the Belleville Senators. David Honzik never made it to the NHL and finds himself playing in his native Czech Republic these days.
2011 isn’t a year that bit the Minnesota Wild in terms of the picks they didn’t make. Unless of course, you play devil’s advocate and say they would’ve picked up Saad or Kucherov.
And so we move on to the next draft years that were missing picks for the Minnesota Wild; 2013 and 2014.
2013 was a year that only saw one pick missing for the Minnesota Wild; their first round choice.
Nikita Zadorov was the player that got picked up using the Wild’s draft pick.
That pick was made by the Buffalo Sabres, who had sent Jason Pominville to Minnesota with a fourth round pick the next year in exchange for Matt Hackett, Johan Larsson, this second round pick and the one the year after.
The all-in approach paid off somewhat for the Minnesota Wild; Jason Pominville went on to suit up for the Minnesota Wild for the following four years, notching 206 points and 23 play-off points in Wild colours over that time. He eventually found his way back to the Buffalo Sabres, completing a neat little career circle.
Nikita Zadorov, the draft pick that was exchanged for him, played 67 times for the Buffalo Sabres and is now known as a frequent adversary of the Minnesota Wild, as he suits up with Central Division rivals, the Colorado Avalanche.
Also a year of only missing one pick was the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, though the Minnesota Wild more than made up for that with three choices in the sixth round.
They took Alex Tuch in the first round (18th overall) and have lived to regret somewhat, sending him over to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Expansion Draft.
Ignoring that failing of the front-office, we must look at the second round pick that was a result of that aforementioned Pomminville trade.
Buffalo took Vaclav Karabacek with the pick, but he hasn’t really panned out – he bounced around between the AHL and ECHL after turning professional and now finds himself back in the Czech Republic.
The Minnesota Wild also had another pick (originally owned by the Winnipeg Jets) in this round that ended up with the Washington Capitals as the result of various trades.
Washington picked up goalie Vitek Vanecek, who is doing well with the Hershey Bears and shores up a quite comfortable depth chart in net for the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
2015 wasn’t an awful year for trading away picks, as we see next.
Heading to Florida for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, all of the talk was about Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel; that was just noise for the Minnesota Wild though, who were drafting eighteen spots later!
It was blatantly that the Edmonton Oilers would be selecting Connor McDavid with the first overall pick and it was highly likely that Jack Eichel would go second to the Buffalo Sabres.
Nobody needed a crystal ball to see those two picks play out; lo and behold, that was exactly the way of it and both players these days carry the hopes of their franchises on their young shoulders.
Looking at the options available to the Minnesota Wild, you might wonder if Brock Boeser would’ve been a better choice with their first round (20th overall) pick.
Joel Eriksson-Ek is a decent player but not quite the point-scorer that Boeser has turned out to be for the Vancouver Canucks. Again, draft hindsight is a bit silly as there are numerous other factors that affect a player’s development.
Jordan Greenway was a great second round pick-up for the Minnesota Wild, whilst their third round pick went to the Arizona Coyotes.
The return on that pick was Devan Dubnyk, so it’s important to look at the draft pick with the thinking that Dubnyk was the return.
Going in the third round at 81st overall was Brendan Warren. He finds himself with the University of Michigan, his NHL rights now in the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. In his four NCAA years, he’s put up 44 points across 122 games. Not bad going really.
However, when you look at the fact that was what brought Devan Dubnyk to the Minnesota Wild, you have to think that the deal was a bit of a steal. The Arizona Coyotes have nothing to show for it, the Minnesota Wild have a top-tier starting goaltender.
Moving on though, the Wild gave up practically all of their picks in 2016. We look at who they might’ve had, or at least who their draft picks became.
The 2016 NHL Entry Draft has already had several success stories; Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Charlie McAvoy and Mikhail Sergachev spring to mind immediately. Luke Kunin, the Minnesota Wild first round (15th overall) pick hasn’t quite joined their company yet.
That isn’t what we’re looking at though, and we have no doubt that he remains a prime candidate for a call-up from the Iowa Wild should one of the main roster go down injured.
The Minnesota Wild second round pick took a very roundabout route but ended up in the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks as a direct result of 2014 deal with the Buffalo Sabres that landed Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick with the Wild.
Chicago used the pick on a defenseman, Chad Krys, who is currently putting up very solid numbers with Boston University. 43 points in 79 games equates to a pace just over 0.5 points per game in the NCAA.
In all likelihood he will play out his fourth college year before potentially signing with a Blackhawks team in great need of cheap, young blood.
Next up for a former Minnesota Wild pick was Rem Pitlick who went to the Nashville Predators. The pick itself jumped between four organisations before landing with the Wild’s divisional rivals.
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Rem Pitlick actually plays right on the Wild’s doorstep, suiting up for the University of Minnesota the past two seasons and showing up too with a 0.84 points per game. He represents a really solid chance of at least making it to bottom-six action in a stacked Nashville line-up, as they seek to rotate in young and good value talent.
Boston selected in the fifth round, courtesy of Minnesota picking up Cam Clarke, a defenceman currently suiting for Ferris State University.
Matthew Phillips, picked in the sixth round by the Calgary Flames absolutely lit up the Western Hockey League in his final year with the Victoria Royals, captaining the team and producing 112 points through 71 games, as well as 19 points in 11 play-off games. Despite his late round pedigree, he has found his footing with the Stockton Heat in the AHL quite nicely.
The return on that pick was David Jones, who scored just 4 points (1 coming in the play-offs) in his stint with the Minnesota Wild; a rather weak return should Phillips continue upon his current development trajectory.
Retaining their final pick, the Wild may have found their own diamond in the rough in Dmitry Sokolov, who recently was subject to a chat with the current General Manager, Paul Fenton, who is keen to eventually bring him over from Russia.
In 2017, the Minnesota Wild decided they didn’t need a first round pick, bringing Martin Hanzal and Ryan White over from the Arizona Coyotes in what was a determined move to make some impact in the play-offs.
It’d be unfair to judge the individuals acquired with the draft picks that the Wild gave up though, as realistically very few players from this draft year have yet cracked an NHL roster.
In looking at the players, it’ll be a look at current form with their current clubs as opposed to their true final value. That is too far off to be properly determined.
Defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph is currently captain of the Charlottetown Islanders, a mobile guy on the back-end that seems to have found his groove with a strong points production in the QMJHL. He tallied 39 points in his first season, 46 in his second and currently sits on near point-per-game pace this year.
He could well develop into a player that the Minnesota Wild have some regrets on. Regrets on giving up the pick used to acquire him anyway.
The 2015 trade that saw Chris Stewart arrive from the Buffalo Sabres resulted in them taking the Wild’s second round choice.
They took a goaltender, which makes it even harder to judge, goalies being voodoo and all that.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, apart from having a great name left Finland for a clearer Canadian junior development path, now dressing for the Sudbury Wolves. In 14 OHL games this year, he has a save percentage of 0.926 and a goals against average of 2.48.
These are impressive numbers in a league commonly seeing goals against averages above 3.
His current statistics put him third and fourth in OHL goalies for goals against average and save percentage respectively, suggesting the trade may eventually bite the Wild.
In many cases, it seems that making these trades did nothing to better the Minnesota Wild in the short-term; at least not enough to be a truly competitive play-off team.
However, no one pick that they gave up has turned out to be an elite superstar. Now granted, there have been overlooked options on the board in some of the draft years that Minnesota surrendered their pick, it’s just good fortune or poor scouting that the Wild don’t have further regrets.
If the early signs from the new General Manager are anything to go by, I highly doubt he’ll be throwing picks out there with reckless abandon.
Should someone like an Artemi Panarin become available, sure, he might go after such a name. However, the cost would be steep and we’ve increasingly seen that this league is one that requires smart usage of the NHL Entry Draft.
2018 marked one of the first years in a while that the Wild had more than seven picks. No second round pick but three chances in the third seemingly not a bad trade-off especially as one was used on Connor Dewar, who recently put on a good showing in the Canada Russia Series.
Long term, the Minnesota Wild might have some regrets on trading away so many potential players. Short term, they don’t in all honesty.
The future is worth throwing away a little if it brings a Stanley Cup in the short-term. Winning just one can’t be the focus though, so it requires plenty of juggling to maintain a strong enough prospect pool whilst picking up the rental pieces that will really help make a difference.
Next. Kahkonen settling in nicely with Iowa Wild. dark
Now to see what Paul Fenton does come the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. With any luck he’s playing with a first round (31st overall) pick. If that’s the case, I doubt anyone will care what who has come and gone before!
Statistics courtesy of Elite Prospects.