In the turtle derby of the Western Conference playoff race, the Minnesota Wild find themselves just clinging to a final wild-card spot entering play on Tuesday night.
General manager Paul Fenton is approaching his first trade deadline after being hired last May. Like many teams around the Wild in the standings, tough decisions will have to made over the next week on just how active he'll be -- will he try to improve his team in hopes of pushing them over the playoff line, or start to part ways with pending free agents or flip prominent pieces for future assets?
Speaking with Michael Russo of The Athletic, Fenton touched on the team's recent struggles and offered up quite the candid quote on the team winning just once in the month of February so far.
You have to hand it to Fenton for having some fun with the local media members giving their recent inability to win. If you remember last week, Bruce Boudreau guaranteed that the club would make the playoffs this season. It doesn't help that losing a centre like Mikko Koivu for the rest of the season.
The Wild have been one of the most consistent teams in qualifying for the playoffs, but struggle to make any noise – they’ve haven’t escaped the second round in their six straight playoff appearances. It'll be interesting to watch how Fenton puts his stamp on the club going forward.
(h/t Michael Russo)
