Minny MacKinnon, Wild Make Mid-Season Splash

Welcome to the third edition of Wild Times

As Aaron Sanderson said "This came out of nowhere." And it did. The Minnesota Wild, a team that is usually on a silent hum throughout the regular season, and never in any trade rumours, shocked the PFHL late Sunday night with a blockbuster acquiring Nathan MacKinnon and Marco Scandella.

"We did not expect to make a move like this, especially mid way through the season." Wolf said. "But with the way our team has been playing, and in analyzing our team trajectory moving forward, we made all of the calculations to decide whether or not this was a deal we could make to propel us to where we want to be, and all of those calculations came back positive. So we figured, hey, if we can do it, let's do it. It's not every day an elite player like MacKinnon becomes available."

Many of the league held small criticisms about the Wild giving up too much, which Wolf retorted "Yes, we did. But you have to if you want to add a player like MacKinnon. If you're looking at this trade across the board, we gave up more value than we got back. But the difference here is if you're going to get a player like MacKinnon, you have to put your balls on the table in order to do so."

The Wild gave up a shocking package of youth which included Tim Stutzle, William Eklund, and Cole Perfetti in the deal. When challenged why Wolf admits he gave up more value, then why was the trade made?

"For a multitude of reasons. We wanted to help take the pressure off Kopitar carrying the team. Routinely he is counted on in so many situations and is always exhausted playing over 25 minutes a night. This acquisition will help alleviate the pressure off Kopitar. It provides us with more offensive scoring, an area where we have severely lacked in all season long. And also, teams with elite players win. We needed quality over quantity. We needed another player like MacKinnon to help develop our young players. He makes everyone around him better, and that's an element that players like Stutzle, Eklund, Perfetti, etc, cannot help us in right now. This deal checked off a lot of boxes for us not only this year, but beyond this season, so after long and serious deliberation we decided we could not pass this opportunity up."

Nathan MacKinnon, was the captain of his former team, and also lead the Avalanche in scoring with 42 points in 46 games. He joins the rival Minnesota Wild and is expected to make his season debut in his new green and red colors on Day 100 against the Calgary Flames.

One thing is for sure, the Wild are sure glad Nathan MacKinnon won't be scoring on them anymore. "He used to pick us apart when we played him and the Avalanche in our divisional matchups. We're over the moon that he will be dawning the Minnesota colors from here on out as a member of the Wild." Wolf concluded.

Nathan Mackinnon and Marco Scandella are expected to make their Wild debut on Thursday against the Flames, joining the team after the Wild fly into Calgary after their game at home against the Canadiens, here is the expected lines once everyone is in the line-up and healthy.