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).