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The State of Hockey wakes up on Saturday to the rumbling aftershocks of the Quinn Hughes trade. And in taking the temperature based on comments on Hockey Wilderness, elsewhere on the internet, and personal text messages, it seems one of those shocks is of the sticker variety. One can definitely argue that the Vancouver Canucks maximized their return for Hughes. The jewel of the trade for them is Zeev Buium, who came into this season as a consensus top-10 prospect in the NHL. They got a legitimate top-six center in Marco Rossi, who is 24 and coming off a 60-point season and a good start before injuries struck. They got a solid NHL-ready(ish) prospect in Liam Öhgren, and a first-round pick in 2026. It's a really good haul for a rebuilding team forced to sell off a franchise player. The largest point of contention seems to stem from surrendering Buium in the deal. NHL teams are usually loath to give up prospects of Buium's caliber -- they're young, cost-controlled, and full of potential. Putting on the Sigmund Freud glasses to psychoanalyze the fanbase, perhaps they have lingering memories of the Wild giving up Alex Tuch as a top prospect before he was able to establish himself in Minnesota. Or it might not be that deep. Buium's the rare prospect where you can throw around comparisons like Hughes or Cale Makar and not sound like someone who breathlessly compares J.J. McCarthy to Tom Brady. It makes sense that fans would be attached to the idea that he, too, could grow into being a player like Hughes. Why surrender Buium plus two roster players and a first-rounder if Buium might grow into the role in the near future? The reason why is simple: Hughes is the Hughes-like player that we think Buium can become. There's uncertainty with Buium, and no, it's not because he didn't immediately take the NHL by storm. It's unlikely that he will be Hughes, mostly because most prospects -- hell, most S-Tier prospects -- don't turn into Hughes. Hell, Luke Hughes has the same parents as Quinn, and he hasn't even turned into Quinn yet. The Athletic's Corey Pronman may have illuminated that point when he spoke at length about Buium ahead of this season. "[Buium] brings you out of the seat with his talent. He's so skilled, so smart, so dynamic. A great skater," the normally reserved prospect evaluator gushed. "When I see him. "Honestly, when I watched him, I see (Zach) Werenski. I see that guy at the same age." Look, Zach Werenski rocks. He contended for the Calder Trophy in his rookie year with a 47-point season. He's scored 20 goals from the blueline twice. Last season, he finished runner-up for the Norris Trophy and seventh for MVP, and he's producing at a point-per-game pace this season. And yet, as great as he is, he's not transcendent in the way Hughes is. Werenski has averaged 57 points per 82 games throughout his career, while Hughes is averaging 77. Werenski's play has been worth a cumulative 23.7 Standings Points Above Replacement throughout his career, while Hughes is at 27.3 SPAR... and that's with 134 fewer games. Hughes has also been a Norris Trophy finalist twice before his 26th birthday, while Werenski didn't accomplish that until his age-27 season. Buium has the talent to beat the odds, sure, but it's much more likely that he's "just" a No. 1 defenseman than an All-World defenseman like Hughes. It's just simple probability. The Vancouver Canucks know this, too. They didn't make this trade because they were excited about cashing in a 26-year-old Hughes for a younger version. As Vancouver beat writer Harman Dayal wrote for The Athletic, "With the writing on the wall that Hughes wasn’t going to re-sign in Vancouver long-term, the Canucks had to do their best to minimize the pain." The Canucks almost certainly would have preferred to keep Hughes. That fact alone should dispel the reservations about the price involved. Trading for Hughes also means giving up Marco Rossi, who has looked like a low-end No. 1 center over the past two seasons. Rossi's a strong player with a nose for the net, a responsible two-way game, and sneaky grit. Is he ever going to be considered an MVP candidate? Probably not. Meanwhile, Hughes is at that level. As for Öhgren and the first-round pick? The former might be a solid middle-six winger, while the latter is a lottery ticket. So if we're scoring at home, there are just two risks for this trade: That Buium hits his 99th-percentile outcome and becomes a Hughes-type player, and that Minnesota can't convince Hughes to stay in the State of Hockey. Are the risks noteworthy? Sure, but they're also acceptable. And even if one of those outcomes happen, that might not mean Minnesota automatically loses the trade. Buium might be everything the Wild think he'll be, but the fact of the matter is that Minnesota needed him to be a superstar this season to maximize their Stanley Cup window. That's not a fair expectation, maybe, but that's how the Wild are built. Kaprizov is healthy, on pace for 47 goals, and most crucially, making $9 million against the cap before his cap hit nearly doubles. Important players like Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Johansson, and Marcus Foligno are well into their 30s. Their cornerstone players: Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Brock Faber are in the age-23-to-29 sweet spot. The Wild still have about $6.3 million of deadline cap space to make another move. For those reasons, this may be the year Minnesota is best-suited to make a run. So if it costs Rossi, Öhgren, and a first-round pick for Bill Guerin to, effectively, hit fast-forward for six years of Buium's development, that's worth it. Wild fans should already know how challenging it can be waiting for prospects when the contention window says it's go-time. That's what happened with the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter Wild core. They waited for top prospects like Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba, Jason Zucker, and Nino Niederreiter to grow up fast and boost an aging core. Those players reached a high level in the 2016-17 season, but by then? Parise and Suter were 32, and their best years were behind them. Mikko Koivu was 33, and about to go into decline. They had the one great season that year, got goalie'd in the first round, and that was that. Acquiring Hughes is about avoiding that mistake. Having Hughes and Kaprizov in the fold and in their primes over the next two seasons gives Minnesota two playoff runs that look more promising than any in franchise history. They don't have to wait for someone to hit their stride, hoping they'll fall in the middle of the Venn diagram between prospects developing and aging veterans holding on. The pieces are largely in place, go win some games. That probably makes the deal worth it even in the worst-case scenario: that this ends with Hughes walking in the summer of 2027. Again, Kaprizov's at the absolute height of his powers, at age 28. The Wild hope he'll age well, and his all-around skill set suggests he should still play at a high level into his 30s, but his ability to bring a Cup to Minnesota is probably at its apex this year and next. Hughes and Kaprizov for two years might represent a greater chance at the Cup than Buium and Kaprizov for the next nine. Besides, seeing as the Wild are the only team to have written a $17 million check to a superstar, it's going to be tough to call it a slam-dunk that Hughes will be gone in two years. Much like it was with Kaprizov this summer, the price for Hughes was substantial, but also, it's a price any team should be willing to pay. Players as good as Hughes don't hit the trade market often, and certainly not when they're in the middle of their prime. You pay whatever price to get those players when they become available, because regardless of what's getting sent back, the team landing an All-World player is going to walk away the better deal.

Quinn Hughes' arrival in Minnesota has been an injection of adrenaline into an already surging team. It has changed the entire team's feel. The move has signalled that the organization is done waiting around and is ready to chase something bigger right now. The Wild didn’t make a safe middle-of-the-road trade. They pushed all their chips in, sending out a package centered on Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren, and a future first-round pick to acquire Hughes. That kind of price gets everyone's attention in the room. It tells players that management believes this group is close and willing to pay to put it over the top. Hughes arrived as a fully formed, elite No. 1 defenseman, not a project or might be good someday. He came with the resume of a star: huge minutes, power play quarterback, primary puck mover, and the kind of player other teams have to game plan around. For a franchise that has spent years trying to find that true cornerstone on the back end, it instantly raised the standard of what “good enough” looks like. From his first game in a Wild sweater, Hughes looked like he belonged. He scored in his debut and immediately started driving play from the back end, turning routine breakouts into controlled rushes and giving Minnesota a different gear in transition. The points came in short order, with Hughes adding to a season total of 30 points in 33 games and continuing to produce at roughly the same rate he had in Vancouver. The way he creates his production makes it so valuable. Hughes doesn’t rely on hopeful point shots; he walks the blue line, pulling forecheckers out of position, and threads passes through seams that open up only because of his patience and edge work. That ability to hold the puck and wait for the right lane has turned basic offensive zone time into real pressure, forcing penalty kills and five-on-five units to stretch and respect the threat at the top of the zone. Then there’s the workload. Hughes regularly pushes close to 29 minutes a night and has already gone past 32 minutes in a non-overtime game, essentially becoming the Wild’s metronome. When the game is getting away, he’s on the ice to settle things down. When they need a push, he's out there starting the play. Late in tight games, he’s the one taking those crucial shifts, touching the puck, and dictating tempo. The Hughes trade hit at the perfect time for a team that was already starting to heat up. Minnesota had been rolling since early November, and Hughes stepped straight into that stretch and made it look even more convincing. Minnesota kept stacking wins in the immediate aftermath of the deal, including a statement performance over Boston, and outscored opponents 16-4 in the first three games with him in the lineup. That kind of goal differential doesn’t happen by accident. You can see his fingerprints all over how the Wild manages games now. Breakouts are cleaner, with fewer blind chips off the glass and fewer panic plays under pressure. Forwards are getting the puck in stride, which leads to more controlled entries and longer spells in the offensive zone. All of that adds up to less time chasing, less time stuck in their own end, and more stretches where the Wild are dictating the pace instead of reacting to it. Defensively, Hughes has done as much to stabilize the team as he has to spark its offense. By handling the toughest matchups and the heaviest minutes, he lets the rest of the defense slide into roles that fit them better. The Wild aren’t asking second-pair guys to play like shutdown No. 1s anymore, and depth defenseman can focus on simpler, more defined responsibilities instead of being overextended. The overall look of the Wild’s back end has changed because of that shift. There’s less scrambling, fewer extended shifts where everyone is pinned and chasing, and more sequences where Minnesota kills plays early and flips them into possession going the other way. When Hughes is on the ice, the team plays with a calm, connected posture that has been missing in earlier stretches of the season. Off the ice, Hughes has brought a different kind of presence to the Wild’s locker room. He doesn’t need to be the loudest guy in the room. His confidence shows up in how he prepares, how steady he looks in big moments, and how comfortable he is carrying the weight of expectations. When your top defenseman never looks rattled, it has a way of settling everyone else down as well. That influence is easy to miss on TV but impossible to ignore around the team. A quick word on the bench after a tough shift, a nudge of encouragement to a younger defenseman, the quiet “give me the puck” body language late in periods, those moments add up. Younger players get a live example every night of what it takes to be one of the best at the position, and veterans gain a partner who shares the burden of driving the team forward. Taken together, the Hughes trade feels like a turning point for the franchise. For years, the Wild have been good, sometimes very good, but often stuck in that middle tier where they were hard to play against without truly scaring the league's elite. Now with a star on the back end to go with their core up front, the roster finally looks like the front office built it with a deep spring run in mind. People will debate the cost in prospects for a long time, but in the short term, the wins, the goal differential, and the way this team now carries itself suggest it was the kind of bold move that can redefine an era in Minnesota.

Back in October, Bill Guerin posed a simple question about Matt Boldy to The Athletic's Joe Smith: "You tell me. What wingers are better than him?" At the time, the list wasn't very long. The Minnesota Wild's "second star" was already in the top-20 wingers, according to NHL Network. Jack Fresher, or JFresh, of Elite Prospects ranked him 17th in the league, ahead of bona fide high-end players like Kyle Connor, Brady Tkachuk, and Filip Forsberg. The Athletic's Player Tiers was even higher on him, placing Boldy ahead of all but nine wingers. Obviously, it's a subjective question, and 10 different people might have produced 10 different lists when asked that question before the season started. Still, no matter who created the list or who was on it, it's a virtual guarantee that there would be a lot fewer names on it today. We're approaching Game 40 of the season, and it's impossible to dismiss Boldy's tear to start the year as a hot streak. On Saturday night -- Game 39 for Boldy and the Wild -- Boldy claimed the team lead in goals with his 23rd and 24th of the season, and is up to 45 points on the season. The 24-year-old has enjoyed hot starts before, but would often hit a slump that would derail a true breakout season. If that slump is coming, we haven't seen it yet. Matt Boldy, Time To Reach 45 Points By Season: 2022-23: 67 games 2023-24: 50 games 2024-25: 50 games 2025-26: 39 games At this point, it'll be shocking if this doesn't go down as the year Boldy finally takes "The Leap." Boldy is currently on pace for 50 goals -- a would-be Wild record -- and 95 points. His upside has taken an upturn in the past two weeks, even with Quinn Hughes joining the team. The All-World defenseman has assisted on Boldy's past three goals, after all. We've seen Boldy go on tears before, but he's never sustained something quite this good, this long. Maybe it's an awkward data point to not wait until Game 40, but this is Boldy's best 39-game stretch in any season by a wide margin. That's impressive, but not nearly as impressive as matching Kirill Kaprizov's output almost perfectly. Boldy's 24 goals are one ahead, and his 45 points are one behind the Wild's $17 million man. That's no criticism of Kaprizov, who comes into Monday tied with Jason Robertson for fifth in the NHL with goals, and eighth in the league in points. Instead, it's a testament to just how high Boldy's stock is rising, keeping up with a player who was an MVP favorite at this time last season. Usually, when you see these kinds of results from a "second star," you can credit the "Batman" for elevating "Robin's" numbers. Kaprizov and Boldy make for a lethal battery on the power play, but Boldy has thrived away as the primary driver of his own line at 5-on-5. Boldy has spent just 36.5% of his 5-on-5 minutes with Kaprizov, and when Boldy has been on a line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson, the Wild have out-scored opponents 12-2. Recency bias can overwhelm us, but it's still probably a bridge too far to suggest Boldy has leapt over Kaprizov. Kaprizov can run off a stretch where he scores nearly a goal per game for two months. It's telling that we're treating Boldy's production as a major revelation, while Kaprizov's nearly-identical numbers feel ordinary for him. But there's no doubt Boldy is closing the gap. The question is: How much? All three of the lists we mentioned earlier were solid on their top-three wingers, in some order: Kaprizov, Nikita Kucherov, and David Pastrnak. If we average out their placings on each list, the top-15 breaks down as such (tiebreaker goes to the highest rank on any list): Nikita Kucherov (Avg Rank: 1.00) David Pastrnak (2.33) KIRILL KAPRIZOV (2.67) Mikko Rantanen (5.00) Mitch Marner (5.33) Matthew Tkachuk (6.00) Artemi Panarin (7.33) William Nylander (7.33) Sam Reinhart (8.00) Jake Guentzel (11.33) Brendon Hagel (11.67) Jason Robertson (13.67) Jesper Bratt (13.67) Kyle Connor (14.67) MATT BOLDY (15.33) Boldy started the year at the very fringes of the top-15. Let's see how our 15 heroes have fared in terms of points per game (tiebreaker goes to goals): Kucherov, 1.44 Rantanen, 1.42 Connor, 1.25 Nylander, 1.24 Pastrnak, 1.21 KAPRIZOV, 1.18 Robertson, 1.18 BOLDY, 1.13 Marner, 1.08 Reinhart, 1.05 Guentzel, 1.03 Panarin, 0.97 Hagel, 0.94 Bratt, 0.81 Tkachuk, DNP Of course, we know that points are a big part of a forward's value, but it's not the end-all, be-all. Defense comes into play, and the ability to draw power plays without going to the penalty box matters a ton. So, let's take a look at how these players stack up through the lens of Evolving-Hockey's Standings Points Above Replacement, which tries to measure all-around value into an easy-to-digest number. Marner, 4.3 SPAR Robertson, 3.3 BOLDY, 3.2 Guentzel, 3.2 Connor, 2.7 Panarin, 2.7 Hagel, 2.4 Rantanen, 2.4 KAPRIZOV, 2.3 Nylander, 2.1 Bratt, 1.9 Kucherov, 1.8 Pastrnak, 1.6 Reinhart, 1.3 Tkachuk, DNP It's pretty indisputable that Boldy has moved past Bratt, Hagel, Panarin, and Reinhart. That puts him on the fringes of the top-10, automatically. We can also firmly keep Kucherov, Pastrnak, and Kaprizov in the top-3, given their reputation and production. Robertson's edged out Boldy in points and SPAR, so that also limits Boldy's ceiling to fifth. Make it sixth, giving Matty Tkachuk some deference for wherever he comes back. Now it gets interesting: Where does he land in the 6-to-11 range? Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, but we're talking about some fascinating debates. To recap, this group comes down to, in alphabetical order: Boldy Connor Guentzel Marner Nylander Rantanen Your mileage may vary, but here's one opinion as to where these shake out: 1) Marner -- It's hard to discount either of these two things: His impact with the Vegas Golden Knights, and the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs have completely fallen apart without him. He feels like an MVP candidate this year. 2) Rantanen -- He's putting up elite numbers on his second team, and with the Dallas Stars, he's arguably the best player on a contender. (small gap) 3) Boldy -- Homer pick? Maybe, maybe, but Boldy's contributions on both sides of the puck can't be ignored. His shorthanded chops have been a great development, and he's always been a low-key elite shutdown forward, especially with Eriksson Ek beside him. If his scoring is equivalent to this tier, the rest of his game makes a difference here. (small gap) 4) Guentzel -- Another player who puts up great numbers wherever he goes. He's 31, but not yet on the downswing of his career, and his passable defense elevates him over the rest in this mini-tier. 5) Connor -- Yes, defense matters, but so does scoring goals, and few do it better than Connor. Dude's averaged 40 goals per 82 games in the 2020s, gotta give him some props for it. 6) Nylander -- Great production, coming off three-straight 40-goal campaigns. But someone's gotta be here, and his defense has graded worse than Connor for this season and last. Again, your mileage may vary, and people who've watched other players for 82 games may well bring a different and valid perspective to the table. But it's hard to put Boldy outside the top-10 wingers right now, and that's a pretty remarkable development for the Wild. Boldy's not just showing himself to be a "second star" forward in Minnesota, but he's pushing to be a legitimate 1B to Kaprizov's 1A. If we're still having this conversation by Game 82, it will go a long way to helping the Wild's playoff chances.

Going into Sunday's game, all eyes in the State of Hockey were on new Minnesota Wild acquisition Quinn Hughes. Friday's out-of-nowhere trade for the superstar defenseman sent a jolt of nervous excitement through a fanbase that was curious to see what this new era might hold. FanDuel Sports Network knew what the fans were tuning in to see, and they frequently highlighted Hughes with a circle to denote his position on the ice. Hughes had a tough act to follow. Zeev Buium, the crown jewel of the Wild's farm system until Friday, immediately notched a two-point night for the Vancouver Canucks. Fortunately, Hughes got his storybook beginning with the Wild, getting a goal as Minnesota rolled the Boston Bruins 6-2. Being Hughes' big day, it was hard to imagine anyone else stealing the show. Still, as the game went on, it became impossible to take your eyes off the Wild's previous No. 1 defenseman, Brock Faber. Faber was amped about the Hughes acquisition, telling the media after Saturday's win against the Ottawa Senators, "It is gonna be an absolute treat, because he is terrible to play against." And presumably, great to play with, as well, with Faber getting the first crack at partnering up with Hughes. Faber's response was to play, well, a lot like Hughes. He was active in the offensive zone, with four shot attempts (three on goal) and moved the puck crisply, serving as an outlet for the rare times Hughes was stymied in the defensive zone. His power play assist was positively Hughesian, carrying the puck out of his own zone, into the offensive zone, and dancing through three Bruins to feed Ryan Hartman for the goal. It's one game, but let's not kid ourselves, Hughes is arguably the best defenseman in the world. The Wild view Faber as a franchise blueliner, with his defensive instincts and 93 points through 195 career games. Faber-Hughes might well become the NHL's best defense pairing in the league within a week, and if so, it'll be because Hughes is someone who can finally lighten Faber's load. Faber's not a Jonas Brodin, someone who is trusted in the defensive zone, can make efficient plays in transition, but doesn't contribute much more to the offense. No, Faber has proven that he can do everything. He can score, he can skate the puck out of his zone or make a breakout pass, he can defend, and he can thrive on the ice in any situation. Faber's problem is that the Wild are often in a position where Faber must do everything, all the time. He's averaged over 25 minutes a night for his career, and those are rarely easy minutes. Faber's role has often been the blueline's primary puck-carrier, offensive generator, and a stout defender. There's no time to conserve energy -- Faber entered Monday with 115.22 miles skated in 2025-26, 11th-most in hockey, and he's fifth when it comes to even-strength play. Make no mistake, Faber can do that. Despite his struggles last year, he was the No. 1 defenseman on a playoff team. But the hope with Buium in Minnesota was that he'd quickly be able to take stuff off Faber's plate, allowing him to become an elite No. 2 defenseman. Now that Hughes is here, that dream is fulfilled, and then some. Even during yesterday's feeling-out session, we saw what Hughes can do for Faber. Whether or not you believe Hughes is the best, second-best, or top-five defenseman in the league, there's no disputing that he's the best transition defenseman in the league. No one carries the puck more often or exits his zone more cleanly. The Wild have had their share of smooth-skating defensemen like Faber, Brodin, and Jared Spurgeon. Still, even last night, it was clear that Hughes' mobility is on another level. Suddenly, Faber has to expend significantly less energy in his 25 minutes, even if his job doesn't get much simpler. On paper, it'd seem like Faber would become the defensive complement to Hughes' go-go-go offensive style. What we got on Sunday was something much better. Again, Faber can do everything, and that means he gets to be whatever Hughes needs at a given moment. When opponents focus too hard on Hughes on the breakout, Faber can collect a pass and get things moving, with much less pressure than he's accustomed to. Hughes can find Faber in the offensive zone and know his partner is a threat to score. And yes, when it's time to bear down in front of the net, Faber can handle that with aplomb. Faber is set to be the biggest beneficiary of the Hughes Effect, but Wild fans are about to see how his presence impacts everyone, even those unlikely to play much with the shiny new star. Faber was a decent No. 1 option; now he's a top-tier No. 2. Having Hughes and Faber together means that Minnesota can lean on the long-running chemistry between Brodin and Spurgeon, without worrying about the need to break up that pair. Jake Middleton and Zach Bogosian get to fulfill their destinies as third-pairing, in-case-of-penalty-kill-break-glass options. Even David Jiříček benefits, with him getting the slow-rolling, sheltered development minutes instead of Buium. The most obvious benefits of having a superstar come from their play and production, of course. But Kirill Kaprizov's arrival in Minnesota was bigger than just his 40 goals per year; it's the knock-on effects that go up and down the roster. Mats Zuccarello was seen as a buyout candidate before Kaprizov revived his career. Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy both benefit from his presence, whether they play on his line or face softer competition on Line 2. Ryan Hartman can go off for 34 goals in a season. Victor Rask can become almost playable. Wild fans should expect to see something similar from Hughes, especially on the blueline. Minnesota's defensive core has been strong for years, even without a superstar to carry the load. A true game-breaker in that unit should ripple down and accentuate the strengths of everyone else, and that effect should be most noticeable in Faber's play.

By the time you read this, Giannis Antetokounmpo might be on the move in the NBA. Crazier things have happened in the NBA, just in this calendar year alone. The Dallas Mavericks swapped Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, for crying out loud! The Houston Rockets landed Kevin Durant in a seven-team trade. It's the NBA. Anything is possible. Ever since this summer, Bill Guerin has been hoping for this kind of franchise-changing opportunity to arise for the Minnesota Wild. But when Guerin asks the NHL if he could trade for a Giannis, the NHL GMs are quick to tell him that they've got a Like-New Giannis-quality player on their team. Then that Giannis-type guy is someone like... Kiefer Sherwood. According to The Athletic's Michael Russo, the Wild were in on him when the price was "a good, young prospect," but apparently balked when the Vancouver Canucks raised their ask to "a good roster player" and/or a first-round pick. It's a bit too easy to dismiss Sherwood, now one of the hotter commodities on the NHL trade market, as a complete non-entity. He didn't secure a regular NHL role until age-28, and his 12 goals this season are fueled by a shooting percentage of nearly 20%. He's putting up OK numbers with the Canucks (12 goals, 16 points in 29 games), but that sort of thing happens when you give someone 17 minutes a night. Even for a last-place team like Vancouver, someone's gotta score some points. Sherwood's got some of the red flags you'd associate with being fool's gold in the NHL, but to call him that is not entirely accurate. Sherwood isn't likely to score 30 goals (the pace he's on, even after a recent slump), but he sneakily drives offense in the middle-six and loves to mix it up physically. Sherwood is second in the NHL with 124 hits this season. Trading for Sherwood seems like a nice little bit of business, except that the Wild is a team basically built out of Kiefer Sherwoods. Obviously, they have star power in Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, but when you get past their top-six (when healthy), it's hard to find players who aren't some version of Sherwood already. What's the difference between Ryan Hartman and Sherwood, for example? How about Marcus Foligno? Or Yakov Trenin, who is the only player in the league with more hits than Sherwood? Sure, Guerin has to work with the trade market in front of him, and that's an NHL landscape, not an NBA one. The Wild could trade for Sherwood (who makes $1.5 million against the cap as a rental) without restricting other avenues of improving too much, and doing so is probably an upgrade over someone like Tyler Pitlick. Heck, Sherwood would likely be an improvement over the much bigger-name Vladimir Tarasenko. At the same time, it's very Weird (and Wild) that Guerin is looking to trade for the exact kind of player they always go out and get. Someone physical who can play in your bottom six and/or maybe move up if someone gets hurt?! That doesn't sound anything like Justin Brazeau, Jakub Lauko, Pat Maroon, Ryan Reaves, Nic Deslauriers, or Nick Bonino! Look at all the resources Minnesota has already put into building a bottom-six that tries to balance physicality with some offensive production. $4 million for Hartman and Foligno. $3.5 million for Trenin. That's $11.5 million they spent on three Kiefer Sherwoods rather than, say, Nikolaj Ehlers, and $3 million to try to find the next Sherwood. Now, look what they've gotten for it. Those three have a combined six goals in 77 games this season, have collectively been out-scored 15 to 22 when on the ice at 5-on-5, and have given the Wild minus-0.4 Standings Points Above Replacement, per Evolving-Hockey. That's despite Trenin putting up 1.1 SPAR. Is Sherwood going to help some team? Probably. But the Wild should be one of the teams that need Sherwood the least. They've paid three players more than double Sherwood's salary to be that kind of player. If they're still in need of Sherwood, something's gone wrong -- which the numbers for Foligno and Hartman would seem to indicate. If that's the case, the person who made those extensions, despite them likely aging poorly, is looking to double down on more physical middle-to-bottom-six players in their 30s. The Wild have had the same problem for 25 years now: They don't have enough skill to win anything but a low-scoring slugfest. It's hard to say what the solution is, but Guerin has spent years trying to throw more grit at this problem, and trading for Sherwood would simply be more of the same.