As the NHL trade deadline loomed on Monday, the Minnesota Wild sent 26-year-old forward Mikael Granlund to the Nashville Predators in exchange for 22-year-old winger Kevin Fiala in a one-for-one deal.
Trade deadlines are always tense, sometimes heartbreaking occasions, with players never totally certain where they’ll end up when the day is done. For Granlund, who has 49 points in 63 games, Monday came with an extra twist: his fiancée, Emmi Kainulainen, was already in labor with their first child when the trade was announced.
While player trades are just a part of life for athletes, this is among the most tumultuous of the season. Granlund will presumably have to report to Nashville shortly, throwing the family’s entire life out of whack. Hopefully, he’ll get to stick around long enough to see his child being born.
“This was a hockey trade,” Wild GM Paul Fenton to the Star Tribune. “Both teams got better.”
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