“Our prospect pool” – Kevin Fiala traded to Los Angeles Kings by Minnesota Wild
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Kevin Fiala traded to Los Angeles Kings by Minnesota Wild
Kevin Fiala was traded to the Los Angeles Kings by the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday for defenceman prospect Brock Faber, and a first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Fiala had a career-high of 33 goals, 52 assists, and 85 points in 82 games for the Minnesota Wild this season. On July 13 he became a free agent. He also contributed three assists in six Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Unfortunately, Wild was eliminated by the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference first-round. Wild general manager Bill Guerin said he knew it was about time they had to trade Fiala whose 1-year $5.1 million contract was coming to an end, and the Minnesota Wild had to avoid a salary attribution hearing. Drafted in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by the Nashville Predators, Kevin Fiala recorded 283 points in 419 regular-season games, and 15 games in 35 playoff games.
Kevin Fiala will start his journey with the Los Angeles Kings
Regarding Kevin Fiala’s trading, Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin said, “He had 85 points. The kid had a great year. We don’t have [NHL salary] cap space. Honestly, to keep him we’d have to trade three guys or two guys and deplete our team more. Then the following year we’re going to need even more. It just didn’t fit.”
“We’ve been down the road a couple of times with Kevin already. Hey look, he had a great year and we knew we just were not going to be able to do it. We knew that, they knew that. There’s no sense in just trying to [mess] around and try to fit this and fit that and give them a lowball deal. It’s not going to work. We knew we were going to have to move him.
“We need younger guys. We need guys that don’t make millions and millions of dollars. We just have to do it that way. And I think for long-term success as well we have to keep adding to our prospect pool.”
Defenceman prospect Brock Faber on the other hand recently completed his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota where he scored 14 points in 32 games and was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, as stated on nhl.com. Guerin added, “I just think that [Faber] was really, really high-end prospect, somebody that we think is not far away from playing at all”. “I know he’s just going back for his third year at [Minnesota], but in all actuality, Brock could probably play sooner than that. But it’ll be a good year for him back there and we’ll cross that bridge at the end of the season. … You can never have too many defensemen.”
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Kaushani Chatterjee
(2193 Articles Published)