Wild have some big decisions to make ahead of NHL Trade Deadline
With just a few days before March 6th’s trade deadline, NHL teams should have already decided if they’re going to be buyers or sellers. For the team’s on the buying side of the ledger, they’ll now have to decide just how aggressive they want to be to improve their roster for the stretch run.
Take the Minnesota Wild, for example. They’ve already made the biggest splash of the season by acquiring star defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks, but they still feel a bit below the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars as true Stanley Cup contenders. How many more future assets are they willing to give up to level the playing field with their Central Division rivals?
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the decisions on the table for the Wild ahead of the trade deadline.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I think about those three teams in the Central, not that any of them are particularly desperate. I think Minnesota needs another forward, though, if they’re going to try to go toe to toe with either Dallas or Colorado in a playoff series.
Carter Hutton: Oh yeah. And that’s the thing, it’s wild, I think it’s a great point that DB (Dennis Bernstein) brought up when he was talking about the Los Angeles Kings and how bad they’ve been; they’re still in the hunt because of the way the division has been. Now the opposite end of the scale is, you look at Minnesota, how well they’ve played, and the situation in the Central Division where it’s just star-studded.
So what do you do? Someone in the chat was asking about it and I stated my opinion. If they were to move (Jesper) Wallstedt and get a return, I could see that happening in the sense of the lack of playoff success in the history of the Minnesota Wild. It’s just not there. At what point does making the playoffs and losing every single first round just get old and they need to make a push? I feel like they are in a good situation, but man it is scary when you say you’re going to have to play Dallas and Colorado.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…