Blake Coleman is a versatile add for Wild
Wednesday was a frantic day of signings across the NHL, as teams scrambled to secure their desired free agents before they got snatched away. Just because free agency is now open, however, doesn’t mean the trade market is closed. On Thursday, the Minnesota Wild acquired forward Blake Coleman and defenseman Olli Maatta from the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenseman Jake Middleton, a 2029 second-round pick, a 2027 third-round pick, and a 2028 fourth-round pick.
The Wild are looking to take the next step in their pursuit of a Stanley Cup after winning their first playoff series since 2015 last season. Coleman, 34, is a player that has tenacity, smarts, and championship experience from his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Let’s not forget about Maatta, either, who is a two-time Cup winner himself from his days with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton shared their thoughts on Coleman and Maatta heading to Minnesota.
Tyler Yaremchuk: This is a nice piece of business from (Wild general manager) Bill Guerin on this one. I’ll call him a winner for this one.
Carter Hutton: It is. If you’re the Calgary Flames, you are what you are at this point. You’re going to be a lottery pick, you’re going to keep developing from within. But for the Minnesota Wild, they had to make a move, especially with (Vincent) Trocheck being out of the mix headed to Utah. Obviously the Dylan Larkin saga is not working. Blake Coleman comes in and adds a little bit of depth, has that winning pedigree, and can kind of play up and down your lineup. He’s a bit of a nailgun, too, which is important for what they’re going to deal with come playoff time. Middleton did take a lot of heat in the playoffs, the way he played in that Colorado series, I think at times people weren’t happy with it. You can see now, there are still trades to be made, Ty. I know yesterday was a very busy day for us on the panel, but that being said, there’s still going to be a lot of moving parts here as teams start to assess where the dust settles and how they can make their team better via trade.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…