Tomorrow is the two-year anniversary of what has to be considered the best trade in Minnesota Wild history.
Coming off a second-round loss to Chicago where they were a tough out for the eventual Champions, the Wild re-loaded for a Stanley Cup run. There wasn’t much they could do, but they made the most of their limited cap space by buying out washed-up Dany Heatley and adding scoring savant Thomas Vanek. By January, things had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
It really needs to be stressed just how poorly Minnesota’s prospects were at the time. The Wild were dead last in the Central Division, 13th in the Western Conference, and 8 points out of a playoff spot.