In case you haven’t heard, the Minnesota Wild kind of did a thing earlier this week. Nothing crazy — they just fired General Manager Paul Fenton.
Yes, the removal of Fenton has put the Wild in a state of extreme turmoil. But there’s no denying that the now former Minnesota GM’s firing was a completely necessary step as the franchise looks to remain competitive in the immediate future.
Fenton’s tenure as Minnesota’s GM was nothing short of (for lack of a better term) abysmal. The decision to sign 31-year-old forward Mats Zuccarello (he turns 32 on September 1) to a five-year contract worth $6 million annually — including a no-move clause and a 10-team no-trade clause for his last two years under contract — was a bold one, to say the least.