Revisiting the Minnesota Wild’s Nick Leddy Trade

The Minnesota Wild had high expectations for defenseman Nick Leddy when they selected him 16th overall at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. There was plenty to love about the promising blueliner, whether it was his offensive skills that saw him record 83 points in 80 high school games before being drafted or the fact that he was a local boy, having been born and raised in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Leddy’s time with the Wild didn’t last long, though. Less than a year after getting drafted, the organization traded the then-19-year-old’s rights and defenseman Kim Johnsson to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for former 2004 third-overall pick Cam Barker. There was a lot of hype surrounding Barker at the time, but it still came as a shock that the Wild were willing to move away from Leddy as soon as they did.

It’s not a trade that is talked about too much due to there not being any superstar players involved in the deal. Still, it’s worth revisiting for the sheer fact that it may have set the Wild back a couple of years at the time.

What Did the Wild Lose?

Nick Leddy, D

The biggest part of the trade that the Wild lost was, obviously, Leddy. As mentioned before, he was seen as someone who had some promising offensive upside. The NHL in 2009 wasn’t like it is today, where most teams have multiple offensive defensemen to rely on. In fact, Marek Zidlicky led all Wild blueliners with 42 points at the end of the 2008-09 season.

It didn’t take long for Leddy to make much of an impact with the Blackhawks. After finishing with only seven points in 46 games as a rookie during the 2010-11 NHL season, he ended his sophomore campaign with three goals and 34 assists in 82 contests. Duncan Keith was the only Chicago defenseman to finish with more points (40) than him that season despite the latter only being 20 years old. At the end of the day, Leddy had a total of 93 points in 258 games over four seasons with the Blackhawks before they traded him to the New York Islanders in exchange for three players in October 2014.

Leddy went on to play a total of seven NHL seasons with the Islanders, playing at a 0.47 point-per-game (P/G) pace. He brought some excitement to the club’s back end, tallying three 40-plus-point seasons and even finishing 16th in Norris Trophy voting during the 2014-15 season. It didn’t take long for the league to view him as a top-four defenseman that could create offense while chipping in with the occasional defensive play.

Leddy could’ve been a part of the Wild’s defensive core for most of the 2010s, forming what could’ve been one of the top units alongside the likes of Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and Mathew Dumba. Obviously, the past can’t be changed, but sometimes it can be fun just wondering how things could’ve been different if Leddy stayed with the Wild a bit longer.