Wild Acquire Martin Hanzal from ‘Yotes

Apparently NHL teams thought the trade deadline was tonight! Not long after the Ben Bishop trade was announced, it was reported that center Martin Hanzal and center Ryan White were being moved from Arizona to Minnesota for a 2017 1st-round pick, a 2018 2nd-round pick, a conditional pick in 2019, and Grayson Downing. And my initial thoughts: good lord.

Yes, this June’s draft is said to be a rather weak one in comparison to the last couple of mega-drafts. But a 1st-rounder for a player who is, at best, a good third-line/weak second-line center? And that wasn’t even enough?

Hanzal gives the Wild a center rotation of Staal-Koivu-Hanzal-Haula, which is extremely solid but also extremely unspectacular. Basically two second-line centers and two-third line centers. Perhaps Bruce Boudreau helps him thrive the way he helps virtually everyone thrive. But we’re talking about a guy whose career-high in points is 41, which he achieved last season at 28-years-old (scoring primes are closer to 24–25, according to Eric Tulsky). He’s not a bad guy to add to your team by any means, but he’s not going to be any sort of a game-breaker — and the Wild gave up a king’s ransom for him.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes, who have had a “For Sale” sign in front of their property for the last four seasons (both on the ice and off the ice), dump a couple of players they were going to have no use for beyond this season for a whole bunch of draft picks. They managed to wrangle more than a first-round pick for lifelong Coyote Hanzal (White was really more of a throw-away).

John Chayka, the 26-year-old GM in Arizona, inherited a huge mess but is doing his best to clean it up — as a statistically-influenced decision maker, he recognizes that, at least in the NHL, stockpiling numerous draft picks is the best way to gather homegrown NHL talent. Not only did he gather multiple picks, but they were also higher picks. He either a) increases his odds of finding a successful NHLer or b) has a useful asset to use in a trade toward acquiring an already effective NHLer.