NHL history: Worst trade in each team’s history

NHL history: Worst trade in each team’s history: Minnesota Wild

This is another trade that looked great on paper. Honestly, the Minnesota Wild didn’t come out of this with no value. Brent Burns was not a very good winger with the Wild. The Sharks still tried to make him work on the right wing, but it never did. They moved him to defense permanently during the 2014-15 season, and he never looked back.

Burns quickly became one of the best offensive defensemen of this era. He scored between 60 and 80 points every season, and he won the Norris Trophy in 2017. The Sharks went into the next era with Burns at the forefront. He was the biggest star on the team despite having Joe Thornton still on the team, and everyone loved rooting for Burns.

Meanwhile, the Wild got Devin Setoguchi, who played just two seasons in Minnesota, and Charlie Coyle, who had a pretty good career before he was traded to the Boston Bruins. The 1st-round pick turned into Zack Phillips, who was never very good. They could have had Rikard Rickell, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Sharks did waste that 2nd-round pick on 23 games of Dominic Moore, but not every trade can be perfect. The Wild absolutely lost this trade, and Burns would have been a lot of fun. Obviously, there’s a huge asterisk here because the Wild may have never moved Burns to defense, so who knows what that future looks like. Still, the Sharks made the move and it changed their history.