Minnesota Wild: What’s become of the traded draft picks?
By Luke Ryan
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.