It’s the time of summer when there is a lot of reflection going on about hockey organizations. Since there is little new news being produced, the time is ripe to pour over a team’s history and ponder what has happened. Inevitably, that leads to a lot of best and worst lists. With the Minnesota Wild also celebrating a milestone anniversary delving into their past only seems right.
With the ever present chance of general manager Bill Guerin not being able to come to terms with restricted free agent Marco Rossi, there is the possibility he could deal the talented, but inconsistent center if there is no resolution to their impasse. So, that begs the question, could a Rossi trade end up being one of the worst trades in Minnesota Wild history?
Possibly, but with only hypothetical returns available to us at the moment, we tweaked the question a bit. Have any deals that Guerin has made since taking charge of the Wild cracked the top five worst deals in franchise history? For context, we consulted our archives and found that, just prior to him taking over, the staff here at Gone Puck Wild had put together a list of the five worst deals in the club’s history.
It’s a good list. A quality list. It definitely should get a lot of folks upset about things that happened more than a decade ago while provoking some, “oh yeah, I remember that guy” moments as well. The original article is well worth a read, but to sum it up, here are the five deals that occupy the top (or bottom) of the list:
5.February 2011 -Anton Khudobin to Boston for Jeff Penner and the rights to Mikko Lehtonen
4. May 2006 - Dwayne Roloson to Edmonton for a 2006 first-round pick and a 2007 third-round pick
3. February 2010 - Nick Leddy and Kim Jonsson to Chicago for Cam Barker
2. June 2011 - Brent Burns and a 2012 second-round pick* to San Jose for Charlie Coyle, Devon Setoguchi, and a 2011 first-round pick
1. February 2017 - Grayson Downing, 2017 first-round pick, 2018 second-round pick, 2019 fourth-round pick to Arizona for Martin Hanzel, Ryan White and a 2017 fourth-round pick.
Congratulations to Chuck Fletcher for pulling off four of those five deals.
Oddly enough, it’s the one trade that he didn’t make that we would consider moving off of this list. That would be the Dwayne Roloson transaction. The original PGW writer mentions that Roloson would go on to lead Edmonton to the Stanley Cup final and that the first round pick that Minnesota acquired was “flipped out of town at the 2006 Draft”.
While that is factually true, it was “flipped” for a good player as it landed the Wild Pavol Demitra. The winger had two pretty solid seasons in Minnesota, putting up 118 points (40 goals, 78 assists) in 139 games before leaving as a free agent following the 2007-08 season. Even the third-round pick that was also traded provided some value as Minnesota sent it to Atlanta for Petteri Nummelin, who had a 20-point season for the Wild as a defenseman. While the two players didn’t last long, they did at least contribute while in Minnesota. We also got this reaction from Gary Bettman when he announced the first-round pick trade at the 2006 Draft.
After much research (upwards of 20 minutes!) into the wheeling and dealing by the Wild’s current general manager, we’ve come to the conclusion that unfortunately, there is nothing he’s done that can top these deals. Most of the deals have been pretty good, or pretty meh. C’mon, who is getting worked up over Sammy Walker to Utah for future considerations?
A small case could be made that he might have been able to pry more out of a team for Eric Staal than Marcus Johansson (the first time). Despite his production with the Wild, he was a 35-year-old center, so expecting Guerin to land a top prospect might be a bit of wishful thinking.
There is one deal, a recent deal, that could crack the top five depending on how one of the players sent away develops with his new organization. Last March, with the Wild hunting for a playoff spot, they acquired Justin Brazeau from Boston for Jakob Lauko, a 2026 sixth-round pick, and prospect Marat Khusnutdinov.
The theory at the time was that Brazeau would add size, physicality and perhaps some sneaky depth scoring as a bottom-six forward. The 6’6” forward was fine in the physical department, landing 34 hits in the 19 regular season games he played for the Wild. The depth scoring didn’t appear though as he was limited to one goal and one assist in the regular season and two assists in the playoffs. In the offseason, he absconded to the Pittsburgh Penguins as a free agent.
Khusnutinov is the key to the deal. If he ends up being a depth forward or an AHL/NHL tweener, then this trade won’t crack the top five. However, if he lives up to the potential that made him a top-10 prospect in the Wild organization, then we would be more than happy to swap this deal for the Roloson one on the list. Dealing a 22-year-old forward that has shown signs of being a capable two-way forward could come back to haunt the Wild in the future.
So far, Guerin hasn’t made any egregious mistakes in regards to the trades he has made. His biggest ones (Kevin Fiala for Brock Faber and the David Jircek trade) are at the very worst, even trades for both sides. For now, the original list for worst trades in Minnesota history stands. Hopefully that remains the case for the foreseeable future.
*This pick had a wild ride. It started in Minnesota and went to San Jose in this trade. San Jose then traded it to Tampa Bay as part of a deal for Dominic Moore. The Lightning sent it to Nashville as part of the deal for Anders Lindback. The Preds used it to draft Pontus Aberg with the 37th selection.