Kings
trade Demitra to Wild
So,
Pavol
Demitra now plays for the Wild. Glad to see that Doug Risebrough (Wild
GM) is making some moves to help the team win more now than just
waiting for prospects to develop. I was going to write a post about how I
figured the Wild would make a trade and sign some bigger name free agents this
off season, but draft day beat me to it.
I've always agreed with the Wild's strategy of building through the draft and
developing prospects first over going for established talent. That's exactly
what the Wild are doing here though - they've believed in building through the
draft and this is really the first time in their 5 year history where they've
given up a future prospect for established talent. I don't see this as straying
from their plan. They're complimenting their solid, developing core of young
players.
By building through the draft, you also build up a store of prospects you can
deal later. This is exactly what the Wild did to land Demitra - they traded
away the offensively talented prospect
Patrick O'Sullivan. It was a hard pill to swallow seeing O'Sullivan go,
but that's the decision Dougie made. Personally I would've been willing to
wait, see O'Sullivan develop and do without Demitra. Demitra is 31 and the Wild
won't be able to hang on to him as long as O'Sullivan at 21. O'Sullivan would
have been a better deal in the long run if he turned out to be a good player.
Demitra will help in the short (and medium?) term and has already established
himself as a good player. It's a trade off but overally I think the Wild will
benefit more from the trade.
Fans are going to be happy because Demitra will provide that much-needed
offensive spark to push the Wild into the playoffs next year, and Demitra will
also help keep Gaborik on the team. Rumors are spreading that Gaborik is going
to negotiate hard on his contract again like he did a few years back, and
Demitra will be a huge incentive to keep him on the team and perhaps keep him
affordable for the Wild (not that the Wild are in a financial pinch).