Wild Pulls Off Blockbuster With San Jose

The hometown Minnesota Wild fans cheered loudly for 10th overall pick Jonas Brodin when he was brought up on stage and pulled on the green jersey. Most likely, the crowd didn't know much about Brodin, who spent last season in the Swedish Elite League.

If the crowd was waiting for a reason to get rowdy, they got it about a half hour after Brodin left the stage. Commissioner Gary Bettman came to the podium and announced the first trade of the night, and it involved the Wild...and it was big.
Minnesota acquired Devin Setoguchi, Boston University's Charlie Coyle, who represented the United States at the World Juniors, and this year's 28th overall pick, which was used to take Zach Phillips. In exchange, the Wild sent longtime Wild blueliner Brent Burns to San Jose along with a second round pick in next year's Draft.

"I would like to thank Brent Burns for all the contributions he made to this franchise on the ice and in the community the last eight years," said Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher. "We wish him the best in San Jose.

"We are excited to add Devin Setoguchi to our team. At the age of 24 he has already established himself as one of the best young goal scorers in the NHL. Charlie Coyle is a talented power forward who had a strong performance for the United States at last year's World Junior Championship in Buffalo."

Certainly the biggest parts of this deal, at least for the immediate future, were Setoguchi and Burns. In Setoguchi, the Wild gets a player that notched at least 20 goals in each of the last three seasons, including 31 in 2008-2009. He was a key player in San Jose's run to the Conference Finals this past spring, tallying seven goals and three assists in 18 postseason contests.

"Honestly, I was shocked right off the bat," admitted Setoguchi. "I didn't see it coming and I just signed a three-year extension. All of a sudden, I got traded."

"On the other side of the spectrum, I'm excited to come and try and be part of an organization that's on the uprise. I'm coming to help the team win and to make the team better."

The Wild lets go of its long relationship with Burns, who had been with the club since he was taken in the first round of the 2003 Draft. Burns is coming off his most productive offensive season in which he tallied 17 goals and 29 assists. But injuries were also a part of his time in Minnesota and limited his action in each of the previous two campaigns.

"We really need to aggressively add young players," said Fletcher. "I think today, we added the equivalent of four first round picks. We gave up a very good piece in Brent Burns and a very good human being, but I think our time frame needs to be stretched back a bit and we need to add more young players. We very quickly assembled a lot of good young talent."

While Burns provided plenty of offense and excitement, the Wild has made no secret about being enamored with some of the young defensive talent in the organization. In particular, Marco Scandella was impressive in limited action in the NHL last season and appears ready to earn a full-time role this season.

"We're high on Marco Scandella," said Fletcher. "We're high on Tyler Cuma. Nate Prosser's right there. Justin Falk is right there."

Scandella is one of the players that Fletcher envisions playing a big role as his team gets younger, and Coyle could also be one of those players. The power forward from East Weymouth, Mass. is coming off a freshman year at BU in which he tallied seven goals and 19 assists in 37 games. In six games at the World Juniors, he posted two goals and four assists in helping the United States to a bronze medal finish. He's been invited to this year's World Junior evaluation camp as well.

"There's no way this deal gets done if Charlie Coyle's not in it," stated Fletcher. "We feel he's one of the top young power forwards in the game. He can play center, he can play wing. He can play first line to third line. He adds a lot of versatility, a lot of size and a lot of character."