Deadline moves help Minnesota Wild’s present, but at what future cost?

Fourth Round +

Past the third round the prospects are usually an educated guess by the scouts. These are players that are great in one or two areas of their game, but usually have large gaps or shortcomings that prevent them from moving higher up in the rankings. In some cases, these gaps may be something they can work on, may be something the team can work around, or may be something that causes the player to never make the NHL.

A fair number of goalies are taken in these rounds as goalies are usually more difficult to accurately scout and therefore teams aren’t as willing to use their higher picks on them.

Of the 95 picks the Wild have had in the fourth round or later, only 15 have broken the 50 NHL game mark (15.8%) and only one has broken the 500 game mark:

Erik Haula: Taken in the seventh round in 2009, this late round pick played four seasons with the wild before making stops in Vegas, Carolina, Florida, Nashville, and Boston so far on his 516-game career. He has amassed 223 points in those games.

There is also every Wild fan’s favorite exception:

Kirill Kaprizov: Taken in the firth round in 2015, the current Wild Star has 127 points in 115 games (1.10 ppg) and is on track to break Gaborik’s single season goal and point totals in only his second year in the NHL. Kaprizov has set up to be the Wild’s best late draft steal ever.

Other notable late round Wild Drafts include:

Derek Boogaard, Anton Khudobin, Darcy Keumper, Nick Seeler, Carson Soucy, Ryan Jones, Kaapo Kahkonen, and Brandon Duhaime.