The rise of Kevin Fiala this season in the Wild’s lineup is something that hasn’t been talked about enough in my opinion. The date was February 25th, 2019, NHL Trade Deadline day for the 2018-2019 season and then Wild GM Paul Fenton made a deal with the Nashville Predators sending Mikael Granlund to the Predators in exchange for Kevin Fiala.
At the time of the trade, Fiala was sitting at 10 goals and 22 assists in 64 games & Granlund had 15 goals and 34 in 63 games. Post-trade Fiala was only able to muster up 3 goals and 4 assists in the remaining 19 games for the Wild.