By Tony Abbott -
By the time Saturday's Minnesota Wild game starts, the team will have heisted No. 6 overall pick David Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Daemon Hunt, the Wild's most NHL-ready defense prospect, will be sent the other way along with a first-round pick in 2025, a third in 2026, a second in 2027, and a pick swap, per Michael Russo.
The move doesn't come as a surprise, it's been in the ether for the last week. But now we know it's happening, we know the Wild beat out the other offers, and we know the hit to Minnesota's prospect capital. Having seen it all laid out, this is a decisive win for Bill Guerin and his front office. Should the Wild unlock his potential, they have the final missing piece to their youth movement.
The Wild's under-25 movement was strong as hell earlier this week, having nearly everything a good, growing team needs. A star winger? Check, there's Matt Boldy. A potential (current?) No. 1 center? Hello, Marco Rossi. A guaranteed, bedrock top-pair defenseman? There's Brock Faber, right there. High-upside forward prospects? Danila Yurov and Riley Heidt have entered the chat. A bonafide power play quarterback that's nearly NHL-ready? That's what drafting Zeev Buium was for. A goalie of the future? We all know about Jesper Wallstedt
The only question -- other than whether the Yurovs, Heidts, and Buiums would pan out -- was their defensive depth beyond Faber and Buium. The Wild had invested heavily in defense prospects at the 2020 and 2022 Drafts, spending top-70 picks on Ryan O'Rourke, Hunt, Carson Lambos, and Jack Peart. Despite the investment, only Hunt trended as NHL-ready in the near future.
Beyond that, Minnesota wasn't able to land their Owen Power, Jake Sanderson, or Moritz Seider-type defenseman -- a defenseman with premium size and a top-four-caliber skill set. They'd also struggled to backfill the right side of the defense past Faber, with David Spacek being their only top right-shot defenseman.
That's why Minnesota gave up three assets to get Jiricek. At 6-foot-3, 204 pounds, he brings beef, skill, and a right-shot to the next generation of Wild players. As soon as the end of the season, the Wild could theoretically ice a starting lineup that includes:
Yurov - Rossi - Boldy
Buium - Jiricek
Wallstedt
That's a tantalizing collection of young talent, even before realizing that the Wild would have Faber in the back. And Faber with those two makes Minnesota a potential defensive powerhouse for years to come.
The collection of pure, raw talent on the Wild blueline is now at incredible levels. Before the season, Corey Pronman released his rankings of Under-23 players and prospects. Buium slotted in at No. 16 (sixth among defensemen), Faber at No. 35 (11th among d-men), and Jiricek 47th (17th among d-men). Only the New Jersey Devils -- with Luke Hughes, Anton Silayev, and Simon Nemec -- rival that quantity of high-upside defense talent.
But it's even better. Again, Jiricek gives Minnesota more talent and a diversity of skills. Here's the elevator pitch on all three of those top names, per Pronman:
Buium: He is an extremely intelligent puck-mover who can run a power play like a top NHL player. He makes high-end plays routinely and can break shifts open with his puckhandling and passes.
Faber: His excellent skating, gap work and compete have helped him become a great defender who kills a lot of plays, but the offense he showed this season was a pleasant surprise.
Jiricek: He's very skilled, especially for a big man, and combined with a strong point shot, he should provide offense in the NHL. I like his defensive edge and thought he showed he could be a great two-way player at other levels.
There's some overlap, but Minnesota now has three defensemen who fill three vital roles. The bloom has fallen ever-so-slightly off the rose with Jiricek, but Pronman's player comparable for him in 2022 was Alex Pietrangelo -- massive praise from the usually conservative draft analyst. Leading up to the 2024 Draft, Pronman tabbed Buium as a young Morgan Rielly. Faber has been a right-shot Jonas Brodin with surprising offensive chops. That sort of well-rounded blueline is hard to find, even among elite NHL clubs.
As for the price, it's a big "Who cares?" from Minnesota's perspective. Hunt's future was likely as a third-pairing defenseman who could crack the top-4 in a pinch. The Wild's 2025 first-round pick is trending to be in the 20s, and perhaps the late-20s. Even if Minnesota would hit on that pick, it likely wouldn't have the upside of Jiricek and a much longer timetable to get a return on investment. A third-rounder in 2026 or second in 2027 is downright negligible.
More importantly: the Wild got this deal done without sacrificing their forward depth, particularly NHL-ready, middle-six winger Liam Öhgren, who brings skill and physicality to the pool that would be hard for Minnesota to replace. They get a huge boost in near-term upside without sacrificing anything for the 2025 season when the Wild's Cup ambitions truly begin. Minnesota will need to unlock Jiricek's potential in a way that Columbus couldn't do, but the reward in acquiring Jiricek vastly outweighs the risk.
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