Minnesota Wild: Following the Nick Leddy trade tree

The Minnesota Wild once drafted Nick Leddy, a player that was at the time committed to the University of Minnesota. They didn’t hold on to the player though; whether that should be seen as a regret or not, it’s hard to say.

It all starts when the Minnesota Wild traded their first round draft pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

The draft pick (12th overall) that ended up with the New York Islanders was turned into Calvin de Haan. He has since morphed into a very solid defenseman, playing 304 times with the Islanders, netting 12 goals and adding 69 assists.

His true strength is his defensive prowess; his Corsi For score sitting around the 50+ range across the majority of his stint on Long Island; likewise his hitting and shot-blocking totals scream strong stay-at-home defenseman. He now finds himself with the Carolina Hurricanes after taking a shot at free agency; the possession-driven style of his new team suiting his skills perfectly.

In return for that draft pick, the Islanders surrendered their first, third and seventh round picks. That seemed like a huge haul at the time; it’s even bigger when you look at the players they then drafted with the picks.

Defenseman Nick Leddy was acquired with the 16th overall selection, goaltender Matt Hackett (with a pick originally belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets) and winger Erik Haula were picked up with the Islanders’ picks.

Ironically, Nick Leddy is most known for wearing an Islanders jersey these days; that was where his pick originally started!

When we look at these draft picks as Minnesota Wild players though; it’s a poor return for them – Nick Leddy never actually suited up for the team. He represents a player that could’ve been quite useful for the Wild, especially in the days before they’d found a home for Devan Dubnyk.

Moving on to Matt Hackett, picked up at 77th overall and the ever-challenging skill that is drafting a goaltender.

He actually did suit up for the Minnesota Wild in the 2011-12 NHL season, playing twelve games and performing very well; a 2.37 goals against average and 0.922 save percentage was a very impressive start to his NHL career. Unfortunately, it fell apart the next year with a single game and a 5.08 goals against average and save percentage of 0.848%.

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These days he finds himself playing in Slovakia, so needless to say, despite showing signs of being able to make it, he never did quite stick it.

Finally, the last draft pick given up by the Islanders (182nd overall) was the one used on Erik Haula.

He proved to be a steal in the seventh round, suiting up for the Minnesota Wild over the course of four seasons. 34 points was his season-high for the team; not bad when you consider how late he was drafted.

A stable performer that could be relied upon; the Minnesota Wild made a questionable decision, no doubt now tinged with regret, when they gave him up in the Expansion Draft to the Vegas Golden Knights.

This isn’t the end of where the Nick Leddy trade went though. That single Minnesota draft pick used by the Islanders to pick him has far more trades left in it!

In February 2010, the Minnesota Wild determined to give up Nick Leddy’s NHL rights to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Packaging his rights with Kim Johnsson, they received Cam Barker in return.

Cam was coming off the back off a career year for the Blackhawks and was showing signs of that early-round pedigree.

Joining up with the Minnesota Wild, he was only a season removed from a breakout 40-point year with the Chicago Blackhawks, who were on the cusp of a Stanley Cup; one that Nick Leddy ended up getting his name on.

The offensive side of his game dried up upon arriving in Minnesota though; 12 points across 71 games not the return expected. He eventually wasn’t renewed by the Wild and ended up with the Edmonton Oilers and then Vancouver Canucks; he now plays in the Finnish Liiga after a stint in the KHL.

Kim Johnsson was literally just an add-in on the deal, as he only played 8 games in Chicago colours before finishing up a stellar career.

Meanwhile, Nick Leddy played his first full NHL campaign with the Blackhawks in the 2011-12 season, scoring 37 points. The following year, he played in 23 play-off games as Chicago won the Stanley Cup.

It’s safe to say that in terms of getting his hands on the Cup, the bouncing around paid off for Leddy; I’m sure given his time again he’d have love to have stayed in Minnesota and graduated from University to the state’s NHL team. However, given the chance of lifting the trophy, it’s not unreasonable to think that he’d take a trade to Chicago again and again!

He eventually found himself traded by the Blackhawks too, but we’re not going to spend too much time tracing those branches of the tree, as I believe none end up entangled with the Minnesota Wild!

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.