Minnesota Wild: Should they have given up on Nino Niederreiter?

In trading away Nino Niederreiter, you can easily argue that the Minnesota Wild had finally given up on the idea that the forward was capable of achieving a 50 point season again.

This assumption may have come too early for the Minnesota Wild. Trading away Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask might’ve been rather rash. Especially so when you see Nino scoring two goals as he had three shots on net in a Carolina Hurricanes’ win over the Edmonton Oilers.

Maybe Nino Niederreiter was simply paired with the wrong players or coached in the wrong manner by Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau.

Skating alongside Justin Williams and the highly impressive youngster Sebastian Aho, suddenly he has found form. Whether it’s the sign of things to come or is purely a bit of early luck with his new side, it does make you question whether the Minnesota Wild should’ve given up on him.

Maybe all that was needed was to pair Nino with a pairing combining some duo of Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, Mikael Granlund or Zach Parise. After all, these are the closest to elite level players currently within the Minnesota Wild forward ranks.

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Perhaps in pairing Nino Niederreiter with these guys, we’d have seen some level of improved production. However, realistically you have to wonder whether he’d ever get back to that point in Minnesota.

It was clear to see that although the fans loved him, that he had reached a point where he was almost too comfortable.

This level of comfort breeds complacency and his trade, whether reflective of his own complacency of that of the team itself, sends a bold message.

Minnesota Wild General Manager Paul Fenton has sent a message to the whole roster that nobody is safe and that complacency will not be rewarded with pushes up the line-up but rather pushed out-of-town.

Time will tell whether pushing Nino Niederreiter out-of-town is a move that the team will end up regretting. Right now, based on one game; you’ve got two goals from Nino and just the one assist from Victor Rask so you give the trade win to the Carolina outfit.

One game though is not what this will be judged upon. To judge this trade, we need to see whether the Minnesota Wild are able to make the play-offs without Niederreiter in their line-up.

If they can manage that, you’d argue that it hasn’t been a bad move. Even if they don’t manage it, you could argue that it wasn’t a bad move so to speak but rather one out of necessity as Paul Fenton seeks to mould the team in his image rather than the image of Chuck Fletcher.

Chuck Fletcher’s core players managed to make the play-offs routinely but weren’t able to do much once they got there. Paul Fenton will look to continue building a core that can progress much further than that!