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Minnesota Wild: Following the Nick Leddy trade tree

By Luke Ryan

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 19: Nick Leddy #2 of the New York Islanders and Nino Niederreiter #22 of the Minnesota Wild chase down a loose puck during the second period at Barclays Center on February 19, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 19: Nick Leddy #2 of the New York Islanders and Nino Niederreiter #22 of the Minnesota Wild chase down a loose puck during the second period at Barclays Center on February 19, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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WINNIPEG, MB - APRIL 7: Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov #30 of the Minnesota Wild looks on prior to puck drop against the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre on April 7, 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)
WINNIPEG, MB – APRIL 7: Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov #30 of the Minnesota Wild looks on prior to puck drop against the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre on April 7, 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The tree with roots back at Nick Leddy keeps growing following the previous trade. One of the supplementary draft picks, Matt Hackett was the next to depart the Minnesota Wild.

He was packaged with Johan Larsson and two Minnesota Wild draft picks in what were, at the time, upcoming entry drafts. They were eventually used by their recipients, the Buffalo Sabres to draft Nikita Zadorov and Brycen Martin.

Brycen currently plays in the ECHL and never truly cracked an AHL line-up despite trying his best to make it stick with the Rochester Americans.

In the case of Nikita Zadorov, he is very well-known to the Wild fan-base these days, given he now plays for divisional rivals, the Colorado Avalanche.

The return on that package was Jason Pominville and the Sabres’ fourth round selection, which was used on William Lagesson, but not by the Minnesota Wild.

Are you still following?

You see, they took the Buffalo Sabres’ fourth round pick and shipped it off to the Edmonton Oilers before the draft, receiving charismatic goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov back.

So essentially, we now have Johan Larsson and Nikita Zadorov, both regulars in the NHL these days leaving St. Paul and Jason Pominville and Ilya Bryzgalov arriving in St. Paul.

Not an awful deal when you break it down like that.

However, what you can’t gloss over is the age difference of those involved. Bryzgalov, whilst he did offer some solid goaltending to the Minnesota Wild, was growing old.

Nikita Zadorov by comparison was acquired as a draft pick in the first round; do the Minnesota Wild miss that draft pick immediately when they make that trade?

Probably not. Long-term though, I feel like they do.

So many years, they’ve decided to trade futures instead of trying to build. It seems only recently since General Manager Paul Fenton arrived that they may be about to fix that.

Johan Larsson is still only 26 and has five NHL seasons under his belt now with the Buffalo Sabres. He is the epitomy of a steady and consistent performer. Not a goalscorer or points guy necessarily but the sort of depth you like in your line-up; good for about fifteen points a year whilst also playing a big role on the penalty-kill.

The other key in this deal, Jason Pominville was a loyal foot soldier for the Wild as they attempted to make their play-off appearances meaningful.

Now aged 35, he is a bit long in the tooth, but during his time in Minnesota, he barely missed a game, stacking up 327 appearances in Wild colours and a further 36 in the play-offs. During that time, he racked up 206 regular-season points, consistently finding the back of the net, including a thirty-goal season in 2013.

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