Minnesota Wild: Paul Fenton shows he means business with recent trades

Minnesota Wild General Manager, Paul Fenton has shown he means business in recent days with his willingness to dive into the trade market.

If one thing could be said about Paul Fenton in his first half-year as General Manager of the Minnesota Wild, it would be that he was taking it slowly and not exactly doing anything too bold. That all changed with a trade bringing in a slumping center, Victor Rask and another swapping a minor-league star for one in Pontus Aberg that has plenty of major league potential.

Prior to these moves, the biggest signing made by Paul Fenton was to renew both Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba at reasonable cap hits. In name value, Eric Fehr was probably the biggest name he’d managed to sign in free agency and his trades were for prospects, Will Bitten and Stepan Falkovsky.

The Minnesota Wild have finally decided to shake things up though, sending career minor-leaguer Justin Kloos to the Anaheim Ducks in return for Pontus Aberg. Everything about this trade screams that it is one that offers more to the Wild than it offers to the Ducks.

Justin Kloos hasn’t been able to crack the Minnesota Wild line-up in the past few years, yet Paul Fenton managed to snag a player in return with over 100 NHL games. This trade purely sought to take advantage of the current situation in Anaheim – a massive case of preying on the weak (at least right now).

The second trade this week was a lot bolder; sending Nino Niederreiter packing and bringing back a slumping center in return. Granted, Victor Rask is a year or so younger than his counterpart and that Nino had seemingly peaked already, but it’s certainly a riskier one-for-one deal.

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These moves could mean two things; it could be that the Minnesota Wild’s recent form is making their General Manager desperate.

It could be that Paul Fenton is rashly acting upon the fear that his team won’t make the play-offs but also not be poor enough to have so much of a sniff at Jack Hughes in the Draft Lottery.

Or it could be that he’s been biding his time and that all along Paul Fenton knew who he wanted to shop and he’s finally managed to find trading partners that are giving him a decent enough return to accept the deals.

The biggest question now is whether these two deals are all of his work done for now or whether there’s more to come.

Beyond just the trades and contract extensions, you also have to hope that Paul Fenton is going to be bolder come draft day. The Minnesota Wild have endlessly steered towards low-risk, low-reward picks; think Filip Johannson most recently or Joel Eriksson Ek in recent years.

It’s still a little to early to judge Paul Fenton, but if we’re looking purely at the past week, a fire has certainly been lit under him. He has certainly sought to shake things up in recent days.