After just one season at the helm of the Minnesota Wild’s operations department, GM Paul Fenton was handed his pink slip Tuesday evening in a shocking development.
Michael Russo of The Athletic reported that the Wild opted to part ways with Fenton after a rudderless Minnesota club — burdened with a number of veteran contracts — missed the postseason for the first time since 2011-12 with a record of 37-36-9.
Along with a decline in production both on the ice and across various departments within the Wild’s organization during Fenton’s tenure as GM, Minnesota often found itself on the wrong side of multiple trades designed to both put the Wild over the top in 2018-19 and stock them up for the future.
While a woeful deal that saw Minnesota deal away Nino Niederreiter to the Hurricanes (14 goals and 30 points over 36 games in Carolina) in exchange for Victor Rask (2 goals, 3 points in 23 games with Minnesota — 3 years left on contract at $4 million AAV) might be the worst of Fenton’s trade blunders, it’s far from the only one.
Even if Ryan Donato hit the ground running in his first run-through in Minnesota (4 goals, 16 points over 22 games), the case could be made that the Wild could have received even more back for Charlie Coyle than just Donato and a fifth-round pick it snagged in a February deal with Boston.
After all, beyond the run that Coyle put together during Boston’s playoff stretch (9 goals, 16 points over 24 postseason bouts with the Bruins), the veteran center is locked up for another season at the fair value of $4.25 million.
At least in the immediate future, the Bruins have to be pleased with their dealing with Fenton. Although, based on Russo’s report, Don Sweeney and Co. tried to put together one additional move with Minnesota just ahead of February’s trade deadline.
While the Bruins eventually scooped up Marcus Johansson from the Devils for a second-round pick in 2019 and a fourth-rounder in 2020 during the closing minutes of the deadline, Boston reportedly came close to adding another impact forward instead — Minnesota veteran pivot Eric Staal.
Russo writes:
“Fenton also nearly traded Jason Zucker at the trade deadline to the Calgary Flames on the same day he signed Eric Staal to a two-year extension rather than trading him to what sources said was the Boston Bruins. It also got out in June that Zucker would have been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins had Phil Kessel waived his no-trade.”
Woah.
Now let’s be clear — even with Johansson departing in free agency to sign a deal (with great value) with the Buffalo Sabres, Johansson was a great pick-up for the Bruins during their run to the Cup Final. All in all, the veteran winger tallied 11 points over 22 playoff matchups and formed an effective partnership with Coyle that transformed Boston’s third line from a destination for castaway skaters into arguably Boston’s most effective combination during 5v5 play.
But how would things have been different had Fenton ultimately pulled the trigger on a deal that would have sent Staal to Boston? Let’s take a look:
BSJ Analysis:
In terms of tangible production, you can’t knock the numbers when it comes to Staal, who has put together a nice resurgence to his career in Minnesota after seeing his production plummet in his final years in Carolina and a brief stop in New York (six points in 20 games with the Rangers in 2015-16).
He’s no longer the top-line, 100-point threat he was when he helped lift the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup title in 2006, but Staal has been awfully effective over his last three seasons in Minnesota, averaging 30.6 goals and 64 points per year during this stretch in Minnesota.
If we were to just focus the microscope on Staal’s impact last season, there’s still plenty to like with what the 34-year-old pivot put together. On a Wild team that ultimately ranked 27th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.56, Staal was a bright spot in what was largely a black hole in the offensive zone — with Minnesota’s shot rates exceeding the league average in Grade-A areas all over the ice when Staal was out for a shift.
Not too shabby, with Staal’s 5v5 goals for per 60 minutes of play rate of 2.59 ranking fourth among Wild forwards, behind only Niederreiter, Zach Parise and Luke Kunin. And while Staal was largely handed top-six minutes in Minnesota (18:08 ATOI), you could make the argument that he would have thrived against lesser matchups if a deal with Boston was completed — which would have bumped him down to the third line.
Slotting Staal in at the third line would have given Boston quite the center corps in Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Staal and Sean Kuraly, while also giving Boston some major flexibility when it came to where best to utilize a player like Coyle, who was added to the Bruins a few days ahead of the deadline.
Of course, Coyle could have remained on the third line and formed an effective trio with Staal and Danton Heinen — with Staal and Coyle outscoring the competition, 9-3, in just 113:51 of 5v5 TOI together while in Minnesota last year. Or, if need be, Coyle could have been promoted into a top-six role with Staal holding things down in the bottom-six — either solving the lack of stable RW on Krejci’s line or switching up the 63-37-88 trio if need be.
Either option could have given Boston a major facelift come the postseason, and while there’s no doubting that Johansson was a fantastic addition alongside Coyle and Heinen, one has to wonder if adding a goal-scoring, big-bodied forward like Staal could have put Boston over the top, especially against the Blues.
While Boston would have to pick between Johansson and Staal had it come down to it, the overall price shouldn't have differed too much between both players — given their status as soon-to-be UFAs. Perhaps another pick or two would have sealed the deal when it came to Staal, but Boston certainly wasn't going to have to give up the farm to bring him on board.
Now, the situation very well could have been that Staal himself didn’t want to go to Boston back in February, considering he possessed a 10-team no-trade list at the time and re-upped with Minnesota on a two-year, $6.5 million contract back on Feb. 25. And, much like Johansson, Boston might not have been able to retain Staal beyond this year anyway, given the club’s current cap crunch.
But, for as fruitless as revisionist history can be at times, Boston’s failed pursuit does shed an interesting light on the club’s efforts to put itself over the top last winter — a venture all the more painful considering the B’s only fell one game short.
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick, Corsica, and HockeyViz.