Despite a recent run of success that has planted the team in the thick of a race for a playoff spot, the Wild didn't stay idle before the trade deadline Monday, shipping forward Mikael Granlund to the Nashville Predators in exchange for winger Kevin Fiala, sources said.
Granlund has one more season left on his three-year, $17.25 million contract that carries a $5.75 million cap hit, while Fiala is set to become a restricted free agent.
The Wild also sent veteran center Matt Hendricks back to the team he played for last season, Winnipeg, for a seventh-round pick in 2020.
Fiala, a 22-year-old left winger from Switzerland, has 10 goals and 22 points in 64 games this season, after he had a career year in 2017-18 with 23 goals and 25 assists. He was a first-round pick (11th overall) in 2014 by Nashville when Wild general manager Paul Fenton ran the Predators' draft.
Granlund, taken ninth overall in 2010, ranked second on the team in points with 49 and has 15 goals. The 26-year-old _ he will be 27 on Tuesday _ racked up 93 goals, 224 assists and 317 points in 461 games with the Wild.
He is fourth in team history in assists and sixth in points. His exit continues a string of departures by former longtime core pieces of the Wild, as the team traded wingers Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle earlier this season.
Niederreiter was traded to Carolina for Victor Rask, who has been injured and has one goal in 10 games for the Wild. Coyle went to the Boston Bruins last week for center Ryan Donato, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime at the Xcel Energy Center in Sunday's 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
Coyle (28th overall to San Jose) and Niederreiter (fifth overall to the Islanders) were also first-round picks in the 2010 draft.
The Predators are fourth in the NHL's Western Conference with 77 points, and also picked up Philadelphia forward Wayne Simmonds at the deadline.
The Wild are eighth in the West with 66 points as they fly to Winnipeg for Tuesday night's game against the Jets.
Hendricks, 37, played in 22 games for the Wild but had only two assists. He had five goals in 60 games for Winnipeg last season. He has not played since Feb. 12 because of an upper body injury, but was ready to return to the Wild lineup on Sunday and was a healthy scratch.
The former St. Cloud State and Blaine High School standout has played in 603 NHL games with six teams. He was drafted in the fifth round (131st overall) in 2000 by Nashville.
