Happy 2025 NHL Draft Eve! The annual selection of young players is just a day away for most NHL teams. For the Minnesota Wild and their fans, as of right now, it's two days away. The consequences of swinging a big deal to land a young defenseman have finally arrived as the Wild are without their first-round pick, which was surrendered to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the David Jiricek trade. However, it isn't just the blockbuster trade that has depleted the Wild's draft stock. A series of other moves, some dating back almost three years, have left them with just four selections.
Of those four picks, only two are their original selections. A quick look at where they currently line up on Saturday.
First Round - #20 - Traded away in the Jiricek deal
Second Round - #52 - They own the pick
Third Round - #84 - Now owned by Pittsburgh, it was initially dealt to Philadelphia as part of the package to move up and draft Zeev Buium in last year's draft.
Fourth Round - #121 - Toronto's pick that was acquired to help wash Ryan O'Reilly's cap hit at the 2023 Trade deadline. Their original pick (#116) was traded a few days later in the John Klingberg deal.
Fifth Round - #141 - This comes courtesy of Columbus and the Jiricek deal. The Wild's pick (#148) was sent to New York all the way back in 2022 for Ryan Reaves. The Rangers then traded it to Pittsburgh for Reilly Smith.
Sixth Round - #180 - Their own pick.
Seventh Round - #212 - Traded to Tampa Bay for Zach Bogosian back in November of 2023.
The bare-bones nature of their selections this year is a good representation of how modern general managers use their draft picks to build their teams. The first-round pick was surrendered to acquire a potential top-four defenseman. The third-round pick was used as a sweetener to move up in last year's draft when they felt a player they had targeted, Zeev Buium, might not fall to their original spot. Their fourth and fifth-round picks were made at the trade deadline in order to bolster depth for a playoff run.
Solid asset management brought in the fourth-round pick in exchange for some cap space as was the move to trade their seventh-round pick. Zach Bogosian has played 142 games for the Wild since being acquired from the Lightning. Even with the advanced scouting in place these days it's unlikely that whoever the Wild would have drafted with that seventh-round pick would amass that amount of time in the NHL.
Teams that are in their playoff windows are more likely to be willing to deal picks for players that can help in the immediate future, as opposed to hanging onto them and hoping whichever 18-year-old they select turns out to be a NHL-caliber player in three or four years. Did the Reaves or Klingberg trades work out? No, but the overall results of all the wheeling and dealing made the Wild a better team.
Besides, there is still plenty of time for Bill Guerin to pull of a deal that lands him a first-round pick.