Leddy can’t play defense but can move the puck up incredibly well to the forwards. The Wild need that but also can’t afford to let in any more goals than they do, seeing as they struggle to create them.

Leddy isn’t a huge loss to the Wild compared to how great of a trade it worked out for Chicago. Leddy was a great upgrade over Barker and exactly the type of player the Hawks need. Wish nothing but the best for Leddy but Wild fans need to let it go, and the fact that the North Stars aren’t coming back to Minnesota. What’s dead is dead.

But in the context of the real world, that trade led the team to where they are today. If they have Leddy instead of the shell of Cam Barker, maybe they don’t pick 9th in 2010 and don’t get Granlund. If they have Leddy, maybe they don’t draft Brodin in 2011 because we have a need for a puck moving defensemen.(and I would much rather have Brodin then Leddy).

In short, every move made by Fletcher led the team to where it is today, and I am quite happy with where we are today.

This news doesn’t come a minute too soon when you consider the fact that for 197 million dollars, the Wild could have purchased an entire NHL franchise “lock, stock and barrel”. Nonetheless, this is good news on several levels and I’m personally very happy for the decent “values-based” folk of Minnesota. As “indigenous” lovers of the game, these people have every right to expect that their team is in the mix year in and year out. And now it appears that Parise and Suter are going to ensure that that is so for the foreseeable future.

Another issue which will now be addressed is this perennial problem of the Canucks getting away with “bloody” murder. Without a doubt, the Northwest Division has been like a sick ward for the last numbers of years, with the predatory Canucks running riot and slaughtering patients en masse. In fact, an argument could be made that the Canucks wouldn’t even have won those two Presidents Trophies had they been in a division with some competition. Regardless, now thanks to Parise and Suter, the days of the Canucks terrorizing this division are over. In all likelihood they’ll soon relinquish the division lead to the Wild. And once that happens, then they’ll have to fight for their lives in the WC pack just like everyone else … no more of this “guaranteed” 3rd seed in the conference crap being handed to them on a silver platter! This is a good time to be a fan of the Wild and I wish them all the best in going forward …

note: there was a heavy concentration of Swedish immigration to Minnesota in the late 1800′s