Chuck Fletcher's picks during the 2009 NHL Draft in Montreal were unconventional, to say the least. After trading down from 12 to 16 and picking up two extra picks from the New York Islanders, including a much needed 3rd round pick, the Wild selected defenseman Nick Leddy. Under the former regime, with Jacques Lemaire's defensive style of play, selecting Leddy probably wouldn't have raised eyebrows, but with Fletcher and Todd Richards talking about a transition to an up-tempo, offensive style, most people expected Minnesota to land RWers Jordan Schroeder or Zach Budish. Assistant GM Tommy Thompson talked pre-draft about how impressed he was with Leddy, especially his scoring power as an offensive defenseman (Leddy's role model is another defender with offensive scoring flair, the Wild's Brent Burns).
To me, the Wild's first round pick is reassuring. According to the Star Tribune, Lemaire scoffed the other day at Minnesota's new hopes of playing an attacking, offensive game.
"We'll see what they do if they all play offense and you guys can compare," Jacques told the Strib's Michael Russo. "You know what's happening? They have to say they'll bring something new to the fans. They can't say we'll try to do the same thing. But come on. I don't buy it."
Say what you will about Lemaire's obsession with a puck dumping, low scoring defense focused style, the man has 11 more Stanley Cup rings on his fingers than any of the fans who criticize him. He has a point. We can't just throw defense out the window. Fletcher's selection at the 16th spot suggests to me that he respects the core group of defensemen the Wild already have and doesn't plan on depleting that group. I'm all for scoring, but if Leddy plays like his idol, Brent Burns (albeit a Burns who plays uninjured and in position all season), he'll provide scoring a few years down the road, too.
As for Schroeder, I was concerned with his size. He's supposedly a center but weighs in at 180 lbs and is 5'9" on a good day. My guess is that if the Wild had drafted him, they'd train him to play wing, instead, the reverse of what they did with James Sheppard. Obviously, I'm hoping like everyone else that the kid ends up a bust now that we passed over him and the Canucks picked him up, so we'll just have to see. If he turns into a superstar and we have to play him six times a year, I'll probably take back everything I said to support the Leddy selection!
Budish, I was biased about, because he, like me, went to Edina High. But even despite my bias, he's a big, strong kid and would have been ranked much higher (and definitely gone 1st round) had he not busted his knee during football and missed all of last year on the ice. Nashville picked him up and they might be the smartest guys in the room because word is that Budish's knee is back to normal and they very possibly ended up with quite the steal.
Taking a look at our 3rd round pick, the Wild went with Matthew Hackett, the 1st ranked North American goalie in this year's draft. The nephew of former NHL goalie Jeff Hackett, Matthew played with the OHL Plymouth Whalers. Picking up Hackett even further convinced me that Harding is definite trade bait. Frankly, I think that's a good thing. He deserves to be a starter somewhere and we could make some excellent deals by dangling him.
At 103 overall, the Wild picked RW Kris Foucault of the Calgary Hitmen and at 116 went with RW Alexander Fallstrom, a Swede from Faribault's hockey breeding Shattuck St. Mary's. They drafted another goalie, Darcy Kuemper 161st overall (again, goodbye, Josh Harding) and Finnish winger (apparently he plays R or L) Jere Sallinen. The Wild rounded out their picks with LW Erik Haula, also of Shattuck St. Mary's (though originally from Finland) and Center Anthony Hamburg.
As for the later round picks, the only thing that really sticks out to me as weird is how few centers we selected, as that is clearly our needed position currently. When you think about it, though, the players drafted this year probably aren't going to be playing with their NHL teams for at least 3 years or so (unless you're a top 10 pick). So it makes more sense to add depth at center with players already in the league. More on that in the next post---the Wild are up to their eyeballs in trade talks. Don't forget that free agency starts on July 1st (that's Wednesday).
I also almost forgot to mention that the Wild also traded draft picks to the Oilers for 25 year old C Kyle Brodziak, who played under Todd Richards for the Wilkes-Barre Baby Penguins. The Oilers and the Pens used to share a farm team in Wilkes-Barre so Richards knows Brodziak as a player. He'll probably be used as a 3rd line center; he put up 27 points last year for Edmonton (11 goals and 16 assists).
