The Wild went into the break with momentum, defeating Carolina 2-1 on Thursday and securing a comeback 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Here are five rules recapping the Wild’s back-to-back home wins before the break:

1. The Wild have won two consecutive games – in regulation – at home for the first time this season.

The Wild came into Saturday’s game with a 12-12-1 record at home. This season has brought some rough outings in the building, including a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 5, a 7-1 loss to Edmonton on Dec. 12 and a 6-1 loss to Florida on Dec. 18.

Minnesota came home reeling after a 6-0 drubbing in Ottawa followed by a 3-0 loss to the Bruins, so it was no doubt looking for some momentum before the break.

So, what changed over the last couple of games to get a couple of home victories?

“Pucks went in,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon quipped. “No, I feel like, we’ve had games where we played well here. And it just hasn’t gone our way.”

Boldy said it was just the Wild getting to their game.

“The home record is what it is, I think we know that,” said forward Matt Boldy. “And to be able to turn it around and get those two wins versus two good teams that are playing really good hockey right now is huge for us. And we wanted to go into break on a high note.”

2. Yakov Trenin scores in back-to-back games.

It’s no secret that injuries and jumbled lineups have been a significant running storyline for the Wild this season, and that’s been especially true with superstar Kirill Kaprizov out for multiple weeks following surgery for a lower-body injury. The Wild need to make up that scoring from somewhere, so it’s always a welcomed sight when bottom-six forwards contribute.

Yakov Trenin gave the Wild a 1-0 lead against Carolina less than three minutes into the game, with the puck coming to him out front on a pretty feed from Marat Khusnutdinov. That goal was a sigh of relief for the Wild, after those back-to-back shutout losses.

“It was a very big goal,” Trenin said. “Especially, few games before, we couldn’t get the lead.”

Against the Islanders, he scored again, finding himself in a good spot for a deflection in front of the crease. It turned out to be the game-winner. His fifth and sixth goals of the season gave him a chance to bring out his celly vibes. He threw himself into the end glass after Thursday’s goal, while Saturday’s tally got him to raise both arms in the air in triumph.

3. Vinnie Hinostroza scores a game-winning goal in his Wild debut against Carolina.

Last week, Ryan Hartman was handed a 10-game suspension. The Wild have consistently played shorthanded this season, but they claimed Vinnie Hinostroza off waivers from the Nashville Predators last week. With 388 career NHL games across 10 seasons with six other teams, Hinostroza made his Wild debut against Carolina.

He also became the 31st player to score a goal in his Wild debut. Against a good Carolina team, the Wild were clinging to a 1-0 lead through two periods. But 49 seconds into the third period, Hinostroza doubled the team’s lead, getting credit for a gritty, greasy goal around the crease.

The puck bounced around off goaltender Frederik Andersen’s back and eventually across the goal line as Hinostroza and Marcus Foligno crashed the net. The play was reviewed but the goal stood.

“I kind of felt like it was because I was right there after I tipped it,” Hinostoza said. “But I saw Moose celly, so I don’t know if he got under the goalie there and stuff. Once I saw the replay, I kind of knew.

“It felt like we had a really good game as a line. We had a lot of opportunities, so that was a lot of fun.”

Hinostroza was on the right wing with Foligno and Gaudreau on the third line. With the final 2-1 score, he also became the eighth Wild player to score a game-winning goal in their Wild debut.

Wild coach John Hynes said Hinostroza played well.

“Good speed, he’s tenacious on the puck, his abilities to make some plays and, you know, plays the game smart,” Hynes said. “He did a nice job.”

4. Matt Boldy helped spark a second-period turnaround with 3 Wild goals in a 5:29 span against New York.

The Wild grabbed a 1-0 lead against the Islanders early in the first period on Marco Rossi’s 19th tally of the season, with a primary and pretty assist from Boldy. But the lead didn’t last long. It was 13 seconds before Palmieri tied the game. The game was knotted at 1-1 at the first intermission, but the Islanders came out flying in the second while the Wild looked like it was already looking ahead to the break.

“For us, we knew that that wasn’t good enough, and that that wasn’t going to win us the game,” Boldy said.

It became the Minnesota show, in a way, as Warroad’s Brock Nelson scored 28 seconds into the second period to give the Islanders the lead. Edina product Anders Lee made it a two-goal margin about seven minutes later.

But in the second half of the period, the Wild picked it up. They also benefitted from a tough-luck night for Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo.

First, Gaudreau made it 3-2 with 6:39 left in the period with a power-play goal. The shot deflected off of DeAngelo. Then just after the last TV timeout of the period with 2:01 on the clock, the Wild tied the game 3-3 on a goal credited to Boldy after he tipped in a Jonas Brodin blast from long range.

Trenin’s go-ahead goal came 51 seconds later.

“We stood mentally strong,” Trenin said. “We didn’t get down after that third goal. And the power play came up huge, scored a big goal and kept us in the game, give us some momentum.”

The Wild are 22-0-0 this season when leading after the second period.

5. Filip Gustavsson needed a breather.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson was so spent after the 2-1 victory over Carolina that he was hunched over in his crease as the line of teammates congratulated him for the effort after the win. No, he wasn’t hurt.

“You just try and breathe as much as you can and move and get something to your brain so you can keep focused,” Gustavsson said. “Usually we’re very happy and then talk to each other when they come down. I just had to catch my breath two seconds first there.”

Gustavsson made 38 saves and nearly had a shutout before Carolina’s Sebastian Aho scored late in the game. Gustavsson also kept them off the board in the second period when Jackson Blake had an unsuccessful penalty shot attempt. Gustavsson is 4-1-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average and .954 save percentage in five career starts versus Carolina.

He followed up that performance with 31 saves against the Islanders to take back-to-back wins into the 4 Nations tournament.

For the season, Gustavsson is 22-11-3 with a 2.63 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and three shutouts.

The post Rink Rule: Canes/Islanders vs. Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Brock Nelson likes to head back to Warroad whenever he gets a chance.

Even though he now lives in the Twin Cities when he’s not playing for the New York Islanders, Warroad will always be home.

“My parents are still up there, so I try to go back up there a few times, hang out with them, check it out, see everybody back in town,” he said the other day.

From his place in Wayzata to Warroad six hours away is no quick drive, he admitted.

“It’s a long one, but it goes by quick,” Nelson said during the Islanders’ lone stop of the season in St. Paul to play the Wild in October. “You have your pit stops along the way. I see some family in Bemidji to break it up, and once you start to get up where there’s a lot of space between towns, I start reminiscing about the drives and hockey games here and there. Then you pass through Baudette and I’m home.”

Home.

Nelson, who turned 26 on Oct. 15, is well known as a product of Warroad who played in the state tournament for the high school team and later at the University of North Dakota before turning pro. Not so well known is the fact that he was born in Minneapolis and first laced on skates at about age 2 when the family lived in New Brighton. His mom took him to the Roseville Oval to skate, and found a kid hockey team in the Centennial system where Brock could get some very early game action.

The family soon moved back to Warroad, the hockey hotbed of less than 1,800 where Brock’s grandfather, Billy Christian, joined brother Roger to launch the Christian Brothers hockey stick company in 1964 — four years after the two helped the United States win a gold medal in the 1960 Winter Olympics.

Brock remembers growing up playing pond hockey on shoveled patches of the Warroad River and finding ice time at the Warroad Gardens or at the outdoor rink adjacent to the arena,as well as working and hanging out at the stick factory, amid half-made or freshly sawed wooden sticks.

“I still remember the smell,” he recalled with a smile. “It brings back a lot of good memories.”

The NHL in those early days was not even on his radar.

“When you’re that young, you’re just out having fun, playing with the boys you grew up with,” he said.

(Photo by Jeff Wegge)

That changed during his trips with Warroad to the state high school hockey tournament, and Nelson was picked 30th overall by the Islanders in the 2010 draft. He became a regular with the Islanders three years later, and through 10 games this season he had 85 goals in 328 NHL games.

“For a Minnesota kid,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said with a laugh in St. Paul, “he’s doing pretty well.”

Start with Nelson’s exceptional defensive play as a centerman, Weight noted. “And sees the game really well.” Issuing one of a coach’s ultimate compliments, Weight added: “I trust him.”

Nelson reached the NHL via Warroad.

“Thinking back to those days, a long road,” he said. “A lot of people helped along the way, and obviously I was blessed to have a couple of family members before me kind of set the path.”

For sure.

Great uncle Gordon Christian played on the 1956 U.S. Olympic team that won a silver medal. Then came Roger and Billy collecting gold four years later.

“I skated a lot with my grandpa when I was younger,” Brock recalled.

Billy’s son, who is Brock’s uncle David, was of course a key ingredient on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that famously won gold in the Miracle on Ice. David Christian went on to a successful NHL career, and he and his nephew still talk hockey whenever they get the chance.

Brock not only has hockey in his blood, he has hockey in his name: Brock Christian Nelson.

With Minnesota also in his background, the 6-foot-3 Nelson relishes trips to St. Paul for games against the Wild.

“It’s fun just being so close to home and having all the family come down and watch you, maybe you don’t get to see them throughout the year,” he said before the game in St. Paul. “It’s definitely special to hang out with them; I got to see some family last night and I’ll get to see some after.

“It’s always fun to come back here and play hard and kind of show them what, over the years, they’ve helped me accomplish.”

It started as a youth in Warroad, a period he labeled “awesome” because of the place’s camaraderie, positivity and spirit. “The whole town surrounds you, watches all the games. It’s just something that’s part of the heritage and the background there.”

And, for Nelson and T.J. Oshie of the Washington Caps, Warroad’s other NHL player, Warroad will always be home.

The post A Warrior For Life appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Boudreau’s Minnesota nice tactic pays dividends

To oversimplify what just happened to the Wild: Happy players, happy result.

After integrating a few psychological maneuvers, the Wild choreographed a 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

They went into the game nursing the sting of a lackluster 1-0 loss at home to Vancouver two nights earlier, carrying a grimace-inducing 2-3-2 record and missing injured top-line forwards Zach Parise, Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle plus backup winger Landon Ferraro.

They came out of the fray feeling pretty fine.

“I thought the first 12 minutes or so was as good a start as you could hope for,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Minnesota produced 13 of the first 14 shots on goal, eventually picked up goals from six players including the NHL first goal for both Luke Kunin and Zack Mitchell and sashayed past an Islanders team that kept pecking away. On the second game of a six-game homestead, they again hit .500.

Things started the day before, when Boudreau skipped the tongue-lashing and served up a light-hearted workout.

“I’ve been pretty hard on them vocally, every day that we haven’t had success,” he explained after the win over the Isles. “At Game 7, if you start doing that, eventually they’re going to tune you out. I thought we needed a little break and let the players relax a little bit.

“Even though they knew the importance of tonight’s game, to get on the winning side at home, I thought they needed a smile a little bit.”

Whether the rash of injuries — Parise underwent back surgery this week and is not expected back until Christmas or later — has forced Minnesota’s players to grip their sticks too tight or not, this team has often looked out of sync.

On Thursday, thanks to short-handed goals by Eric Staal and Kunin plus even-strength goals from Marcus Foligno, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin and Mitchell, the Wild seemed in control most of the evening despite New York pushing back and finishing even with Minnesota in shots on goal at 33.

The score was only close because of a last-minute Islanders’ goal, however.

The Wild stayed on top of their game most of the evening, making it an enjoyable night for the home side, as well as 18,824 Xcel Energy Center customers.

“We’ll take it,” Staal said, “and look forward to Saturday.”

Ah, yes, Saturday is when two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh comes to town.

That should be fun, don’t you think?

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The post Gallery: Wild vs. Islanders appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

ST. PAUL — The Islanders needed something. From the start of the season through Nov. 25, they carried a 6-11-4 record in the NHL’s toughest division. There was talk that coach Jack Capuano was on the hot seat and the path to the postseason was hazy at best.

Fast-forward to the first week of 2017 and things are looking up with an 9-5-3 record since that rough start. They’re climbing the standings despite being in a division that carries the three best records in the NHL and four of the top seven. A huge part of that success has been the offensive explosion of Edina-native Anders Lee.

“I think [my success is] just continuing to play my game. I’m finding my game, not trying to do too much, getting the bounces, and things have been just rolling really well right now,” he said before a Dec. 29 game against his hometown Minnesota Wild.

Lee started the season ice cold, scoring just one goal in his first 18 games with a 3.3 shooting percentage. In the 19 games since then, Lee has 13 goals and a 30.2 shooting percentage.

“You’ve got to stay positive in situations like that [slump], where you’re pressing and you’re playing good hockey but it doesn’t show,” Lee said. “That’s the hardest part I think, trying to figure out when you are playing a good game and when you are really are struggling. Stuff like shooting percentage, you know it’s always going to go back up. It can’t stay low like that forever.”

His 10 even-strength goals in that time frame are second to Auston Matthews (12) and lead with Sidney Crosby (9). His 13 all-situation goals in that span also rank second only to Crosby (14) and Matthews (15).

In that same span, his 13 goals lead the team by a good margin. The closest to that total are Andrew Ladd (6), John Tavares (6), and Brock Nelson (4), who potted a pair against the Wild on Thursday. Lee’s 16 overall points also lead the team since Nov. 23.

Capuano loves Lee’s work ethic and his willingness to attack “the hard areas of the ice” to score.

“It’s not a coincidence around the league that guys that score a lot of goals are going to those areas, they’re not perimeter guys,” Capuano said. “That’s the one thing that he’s always done since we’ve had him here in Bridgeport (AHL) or with the Islanders is that he’s a fearless type player and he goes to those areas.”

The timing of his surge has proved important for the Isles and fortunate for fans in Minnesota. The Islanders arrived at the Xcel Energy Center in late December with Lee in the most torrid stretch of his career. “It’s always fun to get back and see friends and family and see everyone after the game,” he said. “It’s just a special night because you grow up watching the Wild and playing here in the high school tournament.

“My freshman year I was able to win the state championship and it was just a wonderful experience. Every year coming back and playing in front of 18,000 fans for a high school game was impressive.”

However, Lee isn’t losing focus on the big picture. The Islanders have begun turning things around, but climbing the Metropolitan might be more difficult than scaling Everest. While the Isles entered the X with a three-game winning streak, which was snapped, it’s not enough in a division where every team is hot.

The Blue Jackets win streak reached 16 games. The Penguins are on a four-game streak and are 12-1-2 in their last 15. The Rangers are 10-4-0 in their last 14. The Capitals had a six-game streak last month and are 11-2-2 in their last 15, including a streak-snapping 5-0 win over Columbus. The Flyers had a 10-game win streak in December.

Even at the bottom of the division, teams aren’t falling apart. The Hurricanes are 7-5-2 in their last 14.

“For us right now, we know where we are,” said Lee. “We know where we sit and it’s not pretty. We’ve got to take it game by game and work out of it. There’s still so much hockey left that if you’re watching every game in the standings, you’re going to be thinking about things that can just cloud your game. “

Fellow Minnesotan and Islander forward Brock Nelson feels similarly. “A couple teams, they’ve been on a roll,” he said. “Hopefully we can get back in that group. There’s a lot of hockey left. We know where we are. We just gotta go out there and take it one game at a time.”

Nelson put together a nice game against the Wild, leading a comeback bid with two goals just 42 seconds apart. It wasn’t enough, but the pieces are starting to fall into place for the Islanders, led in part by their Minnesota contingent. However, it’s going to take a Herculean effort to catapult the team up the standings in a division where teams aren’t losing many games.

The post Lee-ding the Way appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

St. Paul – It had to happen sometime: John Torchetti’s first loss as the Minnesota Wild’s interim coach.

The Wild (27-23-10) snapped a season-long four-game winning streak with a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders (32-19-7) Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild haven’t won at the X in 2016; the last win came Dec. 28.

Tuesday, the Wild put up just one goal. They scored at least five per game during the recent win streak.

“We didn’t talk tonight,” Torchetti said. “We end up getting a penalty from not talking.

“We had no push back tonight. Nothing was going our way.”

It was tough from the start. New York’s Matt Martin scored 1:36 into the game for an early Wild deficit. Things really didn’t improve much from there. Frans Nielsen scored the first of his two goals later in the first period (He added an empty netter.). Justin Fontaine had a solid chance at the end of the first, but he couldn’t quite lift the puck over goaltender Jaroslav Halak’s pad. Thomas Vanek, who led the team with five shots on goal, also had a chance in the second, with a shot off the post.

Special teams was the difference in the game.

The Islanders went 2-for-3 on the power play, while the Wild went 0-for-5 against the league’s best penalty kill. Torchetti saw a couple chances he liked on their power play, but they “were trying to be too fine with it.”

Coming into the game, the Wild had scored a power play goal in 11 of its past 13 games and in each of the past four. The Wild is tied for fourth in the league with 12 power-play goals since Jan. 21.

“Their power play was better than ours tonight,” Chris Porter said. “But our power play’s been carrying us the last few games.”

Overall, they weren’t pushing the puck, according to Jarret Stoll.

“We were too lackadaisical… with the puck in our zone and the neutral zone,” Stoll said.

On the Wild’s lone goal, Porter found himself in the right place at the right time: In front of the crease with a juicy rebound bouncing to his stick.

Porter, playing in his first game since Feb. 6 in St. Louis, scored his fourth goal of the season to make it a 2-1 with 27 seconds remaining in the second period. It ­was a huge goal for the Wild at the time, as it avoided going into the second intermission down 2-0.

The goal came off a Marco Scandella shot from the point which bounced off Mikael Granlund in front and the puck squirted to Porter to put it away. Porter finished the game with a team-low 14 shifts and 8:16 of ice time. He also had two shots and two hits.

Unfortunately, the Wild couldn’t keep any momentum it gained from that goal into the third period. John Tavares scored a power play goal 2:42 into the third, giving the Islanders a two-goal cushion they didn’t relinquish. Shots on goal for the game were even at 31 apiece.

“Tonight we were a little bit sloppy with our puck playing,” Porter said. “And that ended up costing us.”

Torchetti called the loss “a bump in the road” and said they need to have better shot attempts and do a better job with puck possession. The Wild heads back on the road for games in Philadelphia and Washington.

“They’ll bounce back,” Torchetti said.

The post Back to Earth appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

[See image gallery at minnesotahockeymag.com]

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 Minnesota rallies for emotional win over the Islanders.

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The post Gallery: Wild vs. Isles appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ballard injury galvanizes Minnesota in big comeback win over Isles

The word “scary” came up over and over in the Wild dressing room Tuesday night.

The New York Islanders’ Matt Martin knocked Minnesota’s Keith Ballard head-first into the boards in front of the Islanders’ bench with New York leading 3-0 in the second period and medical personnel rushed on to the ice in record time to assist Ballard.

The former Gopher defenseman, one of eight Minnesota natives skating in the Wild-Islanders game at the Xcel Energy Center, appeared to be convulsing and a stretcher was immediately wheeled out.
Somehow, after a lengthy delay, Ballard got to his feet with help and walked off the ice, after which he was taken to Regions Hospital for tests and observation.

The Wild responded, too.

According to those who keep these kinds of records, the Wild came back from a three-goal deficit to win in regulation for the first time in franchise history.

The score was 4-1 heading into the third period, but goals by Mikko Koivu, Erik Haula, Thomas Vanek and Nino Niederreiter during a 12-minute stretch lifted the Wild to a 5-4 victory in front of 18,904.

After managing just three shots on goal through 20 minutes, the Wild pretty much dominated the rest of the way. They outshot the Islanders 12-1 in the second period and 15-7 in the third to rescue another dismal start.

It was 3-1 in the second period until the Islanders’ Josh Bailey scored on his team’s lone shot of the period, a goal that should have been enough to puncture Minnesota’s attempt at a comeback.

It wasn’t.

Wild coach Mike Yeo loved the result and the win, but “the biggest thing to me is we needed to respond,” he said.

Yeo did not see Martin’s hit on Ballard – no penalty was called – and he needed to crane his neck from the bench to see what was happening with Ballard on the ice.

“It was scary,” he said.

Haula didn’t see the hit, either, but he saw Ballard on the ice.

“It was really scary,” he said.

Vanek, who added an assist to his goal, played on the 2003 NCAA championship University of Minnesota team with Ballard.

Vanek labeled Ballard’s injury “pretty sickening,” adding, “But I think we took it in a positive way. We took the emotion in a good way and started playing hard and it was a great comeback win for us.”

Just four days after the Wild fell behind 3-0 to Anaheim before grabbing the lead and yielding it again in a 5-4 defeat, Minnesota again came out flat and unsteady.

“It’s hard to pinpoint why we started two games like this,” Yeo said.

But the hit on Ballard opened faucets of passion and enthusiasm up and down the Wild roster.

Finally, Yeo said.

“That’s what we need,” he added. “You can draw X’s and O’s, but passion and emotion, that’s got to be there for us, no question. We’ve got to find a way to bring that.”

It shouldn’t require an injured player, Yeo added.

On this occasion, it did.

“Obviously we were very angry,” Niederreiter said, “but at the same time we were also scared because nobody had an idea what was going on with ‘Bally.’

There was no need to talk about it among the players: Mikael Granlund goaded Kyle Okposo into a penalty shortly after Ballard was hurt, and Kyle Brodziak dropped the gloves and fought Martin just 23 seconds later.

“Nothing was really said,” Haula commented, “but inside of everyone I’m sure it was like, ‘We’ve got to really play for Keith here.’ Hopefully, he’s OK.”

Haula, also a former Gopher, said he believed the players were “kind of freaked out” seeing their teammate wounded on the ice.

“I have never seen something like that,” Haula said. “I think we handled it great as a team. We processed it in between periods and just went out there and played really hard.”

Koivu, who had a goal and an assist, called it “a very emotional night,” adding he hopes that Ballard can return to the team soon.

Nearly lost in the concern for Ballard and the delight in the big comeback was the return to the lineup of defenseman Ryan Suter, who had missed two games with the mumps. Suter played more than 29 minutes and contributed three assists.

“From penalty kills to power plays to every aspect of his game, he just kept getting stronger, and showed how important he is to us,” Yeo said.

Yeo talked about how Ballard’s injury pulled his guys together, and they were universally concerned about their teammate when the game was over.

“When you see a guy down like that, it really hits you,” defenseman Nate Prosser said. “All you can do is pray for him right now, and hopefully he’s feeling better quick.”

The post Scary hit sparks Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Nearly two years later, the deal that fleeced New York

Imagine going into a car dealership and asking to trade your 3 year-old Honda Civic for a hardly driven Lamborghini. Seems unlikely they’d go for it. Never mind the fact that they don’t even have enough room for the Lambo on the show room floor and the Civic has a huge upside and is in great shape – they’re still not biting.

Somehow Wild GM Chuck Fletcher pulled the deal off. Not for cars, but players.

A little over a year and a half ago the Wild rattled their fan base by trading away favorite Cal Clutterbuck to the New York Islanders in exchange for Nino Niederreiter, a player unfamiliar to most Minnesotans  and only slightly better known in New York. A young forward lost in an organization that had an influx of young talent at his position and who branded him as a complainer who thought much higher of his game than it warranted.

Most hockey pundits at the time saw very little risk for the Wild in the deal considering Clutterbuck’s desire for a new contract, Nino’s virtually untapped potential and the fact that the team had essentially traded a third round selection straight up for a first rounder. But not many thought that it would end being this one-sided.

In 72 games last year Clutterbuck registered 19 points and he’s got 4 this year through 20 games. He is essentially what they thought he would be, a veteran who knew the game and who could produce with regularity in many aspects of the game. Clutterbuck can score, make plays and of course as we all know, he can and will hit anything that moves.

But most importantly for the Islanders, he can do it all now. His ceiling may not have been as high as Niedereitter’s, but he’s at it now. He is also apparently still quite a jokester:

Do yourself a favor and watch this:

 

As for El Nino, he’s been exceptional, scoring 24 goals through his first 101 games in Minnesota after netting just two in 64 games with New York. But Nino’s been more than just a great player. He’s been a model citizen, a great playmaker and a clutch goal scorer when the team needed him. Because of that the Wild rewarded him for that this offseason with a brand new contract.

So how in the world did the Wild pull this off?

At the time of the trade Niederreiter was unproven. Fletcher told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Niedereitter was a player that was “knocking on the door”.

Still, the Islanders, like a lot of teams with high draft picks, were getting impatient and understandably so. When you take a player No. 5 overall you expect him to produce. But that doesn’t always happen immediately. Sometimes franchises can’t afford to be that patient, especially ones that have had a long history of losing.

The Wild had plenty of time to wait for him to mature into the player they wanted him to be. In fact, that might have been what Niederreiter need all along, the pressure to be off.

Nino Niederreiter’s wraparound attempt is denied by Arizona defenseman Connor Murphy in the Wild’s 2-0 win over the Coyotes on Oct. 24 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The best part is, at 22 years old Nino has plenty of NHL tread left on the tire. He anchors a core of young players who are complementing a team with huge top line scoring talent. Even as good as he was last year he still wasn’t even figured to be their best young player coming into this season but, through 20 games (and his first career hat trick), it’s become evident that he is one of them.

Sure, you win some and you lose some and the Wild have lost their share like Martin Havlat, Cam Barker and Guillaume Latendresse.  The latter of which was a situation similar to Niederreiter’s – a player with lots of talent who just hadn’t found a team that was the right fit.

El Nino is proving to be a huge win for the Wild franchise.

Somehow, some way the Wild convinced the Islanders that they’d be better off with a proven commodity like Clutterbuck, instead of potential that had been untapped. In doing so they pulled off potentially one of the best deals in franchise history.

And one that, like Nino Niedereitter himself, could still prove to be of even greater value.

The post Schwartz: Trading Up for Nino appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.