Minnesota Wild Trade Aging Defense Prospect for Kings Forward

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New Minnesota Wild center Tyler Madden playing for the Ontario Reign (LA Kings)
Credit: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Minnesota Wild will be back in action on Thursday night when they travel West to take on the Utah Hockey Club. They’ll do so without Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov, who are both on injured reserve, and Ryan Hartman, who is serving an eight game suspension.

With the NHL trade deadline (March 7) approaching fast, president of hockey operations Bill Guerin is trying to figure out how aggressive he will be able to act, over the course of the next week. I say that because it’s not really up to him.

If healthy, the Wild don’t have enough money to do anything all that significant before the deadline. Not unless they want to blow up their roster, which is unlikely. However, should Kaprizov and/or Eriksson Ek land on Long Term Injured Reserve, Minnesota would be rewarded enough money to do pretty much whatever they want.

Minnesota Wild trade (D) Joseph Cecconi to Kings for (F) Tyler Madden

But for now, any trades that the Minnesota Wild can make are expected to be of the quieter variety. Like the one that was completed on Wednesday evening, when Guerin shipped off 28-year-old Iowa Wild defenseman Joseph Cecconi to the Los Angeles Kings for 25-year-old forward prospect Tyler Madden.

Tyler Madden — whose dad John Madden played 13 years in the NHL, including one season (2010-11) with the Wild — has yet to play a game in the NHL. He has has a pretty productive 5 years in the AHL, though, potting a total of 58 goals and 67 assists (128 points) in 251 games, all with the Ontario Reign (LA Kings).

Related: Minnesota Wild Lose Defenseman to Reclaim

Madden is seen as a heady offensive center who loves to hang out in front of the net and obviously has a ton of NHL pedigree in his blood. For the Minnesota Wild, this seems like a low risk move to add more offensive punch down in Iowa, along with a safe call up to the NHL, if needed. We’ll see if he gets his first opportunity in the league, following this trade. For now, he will play in Iowa.

Joseph Cecconi only spent 51 games in AHL Iowa, where the Wild were a +5 while he was on the ice. He finished his time in the Hawkeye State with 2 goals and 12 assists. He’ll provide a great depth option on the blue line for the Kings, both in LA and Ontario.

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