Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin isn’t afraid to make a deal. In some cases, like Minnesota’s blockbuster for Quinn Hughes, it’s a quality that can lead them to a Stanley Cup. In others, like the Wild’s trade for David Jiricek, they become moves that haunt the franchise for years.
The Wild sent a 2025 first-round pick, third- and fourth-round picks in 2026, and a 2027 second-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets to acquire Jiricek in November 2024. But Jiricek’s tenure in Minnesota ended last March when he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Bobby Brink.
Almost two years after the deal, the capital is a sunk cost. But it also continues to cost the Wild as they scramble for depth on the blue line and try to make another big deal to acquire Dylan Larkin from the Detroit Red Wings.
Minnesota Wild’s trade for David Jiricek was a failed gamble
The Wild made the initial Jiricek trade with upside in mind. According to an article by The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Kevin Kurz, Guerin was enamored with the sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft because of his size (6-foot-4, 204 pounds) and his big right-handed shot from the blue line. But he hadn’t stuck in Columbus, going back and forth between the NHL and the AHL, and Guerin believed a change of scenery would unleash his potential.
“He moves well, he can move the puck, he’s got a good shot,” Guerin said. “Sometimes you’re just drafted to the wrong team. As a young kid, you’re drafted sixth overall. We’re never going to pick that high. We felt it was worth taking a chance on him, just needing a fresh start.”
Despite the new environment, Jiricek’s struggles didn’t change. In 31 games in a Wild sweater, Jiricek recorded just one goal, one assist, and a plus-2 rating. His biggest challenge was consistency; he made mistakes at the worst time. His skating was also exposed, and he suffered a lacerated spleen while playing with the AHL’s Iowa Wild, robbing him of developmental time on the ice.
Perhaps the biggest reason Jiricek didn’t work out in Minnesota was that he didn’t fit the Wild’s timeline. While Minnesota appeared to be assembling a young core at the time of the trade, that changed when Guerin swung the deal for Hughes last December, sending Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks.
For a team that was chasing a championship, the Wild didn’t have time to live with Jiricek’s mistakes. That led to a second deal that sent Jiricek to the Philadelphia Flyers. While Brink is doing everything but scoring on Minnesota’s third line, Jiricek is struggling to stick in the lineup and has been a healthy scratch over the past five games entering Tuesday night’s matchup between the two teams in Philadelphia.
Wild’s David Jiricek trade is keeping them from making another big move
When a trade includes that much draft capital and doesn’t work out, it gets second-guessed. But the Jiricek deal is hurting the Wild’s chance to take a good roster and turn it into a great one.
Columbus’s picks of goalie Pyotr Andreyanov, center Alessandro Di Iorio, and wing Tyus Sparks aren’t something the Wild should be kicking themselves for. But the picks that were used to take those players – including a 2027 second-rounder that has yet to be used – are assets that could have helped Guerin complete his roster.
The first impact could have been in the Hughes deal. Rossi and Buium would have been in the deal regardless, as an established NHL forward and a high-upside defenseman to replace Hughes in Vancouver. But they could have replaced Ohgren with a player taken in that 2025 draft to preserve that asset.
By keeping Ohgren, the Wild would have had another asset that could have either stepped into their lineup this season after losing 150 points over the summer or put him in the current package the Wild are offering for Larkin. Even if the Red Wings are looking to acquire the second coming of Wayne Gretzky in exchange for their disgruntled former captain, having an established forward to pair with Danila Yurov, Charlie Stramel, and some draft picks could have been the immediate impact needed to pull the trigger.
It also could have helped the Wild preserve some of their current draft capital in that package. If Minnesota had kept its 2027 second-round pick, it could have kept one of the two-to-three first-round picks rumored to be in the deal and perhaps allowed the Wild to make a secondary move for a player who could make their roster even deeper this season.
The depth along the blue line also has suffered in the wake of the trade. While the Wild got Daemon Hunt back after including him in the trade, having Jiricek pan out would have helped a blue line that lost Brock Faber and Jared Spurgeon to injuries in the opening months of the season.
This is all revisionist history, and if Guerin had known Jiricek wasn’t going to work, he never would have made the trade. But as the Wild try to pry Larkin away from the Red Wings. MacGyver a blue line and try to convince Hughes to sign an extension, the deal's ramifications are still being felt and are preventing Minnesota from what it could have received had it not made the trade.
Add us as a preferred source on Google