The Wild Made A Massive Mistake Giving Up On Alex Tuch
NHL teams only have themselves to blame. The Golden Knights are awesome and it’s only because of the incompetence of general managers around the rest of the league. The Wild are currently getting clobbered by the Golden Knights 3-1 in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They only have themselves to blame. The Minnesota front office should have nightmares every single day for giving up on Alex Tuch.
Hey, I get it. The Wild were in the tough spot. They were coming off a franchise best 49 win season, but were still knocked out in the first round of the playoffs 4-1 by St. Louis. They were an interesting team but still far away from a real title contender.
During the 2017 Expansion Draft, Minnesota protected Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Nino Neiderreiter, Jason Zucker, Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Devan Dubnyk. Sorry, not sorry… WTF are you doing here?
The only players still remaining on the roster from that protected list are Parise, Suter, Brodin, and Spurgeon. Parise has found himself as a healthy scratch this season and is totally forgotten about with the rise of Karill Kaprizoz. They gave away Coyle for pennies. Neiderreiter netted Victor Rask but who cares? He’s been a dud since leaving Carolina. The only one you can really defend is Granlund who eventually netted Kevin Fiala.
What are you doing wasting a protected spot on 34-year-old Koivu when that spot could have gone to Matt Dumba? How bout Pominville? Did you really need to protect that guy? Instead, bone head Minnesota gave up on top prospect Alex Tuch for Vegas having to “settle” for Erik Haula. Vegas later turned Haula into Nicolas Roy who hasn’t exploded yet but is a young third line center who scored twice in the Game 4 win over Minnesota.
It turns out Tuch is more valuable than any name the Wild protected. It’s hard to recreate what he brings to the table. The former Boston College product is a big 6-foot-4 body who looks like a bat out of hell skating through the neutral zone. Tuch is a versatile forward that really ignites an offense with his speed and ability to put pucks on net. Tuch hasn’t had that massive breakout season yet but it’s coming. The flashes are mouth watering.
There’s no way to defend Minnesota here. They gave up their 2014 first round pick who had all the tools to succeed because they wanted to protect middle of the road bums. Don’t get it. Will never for a second get it. Now the Knights are laughing in their face and a former Wild prospect (who should have never been available) is helping them do it.
Look in the mirror. The Golden Knights are awesome and the clueless general managers around the league are the reason why. It’s one thing for the Knights to be good four years after the expansion draft. This is a team that has been dominant from jump street and made a Stanley Cup Final in their first year of existence. Vegas is going to be good for a while and Tuch will prove to be an absolute steal along the way.
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