The Minnesota Wild have fired general manager Paul Fenton, multiple sources report to the Athletic. Fenton had been GM of the organization for just one season, as he was hired in May 2018. This news was first reported by Michael Russo of the Athletic. According to Russo, this move comes as a result of not just one move, but several questionable at best trades, and other moves and non-moves, as well as several internal issues that led to tension in the front office and the locker room. The timing of this move is strange to say the least, but credit to the Wild for ending a situation that clearly wasn’t working before more damage could be done.
Fenton had a rough time during his brief tenure as the Wild’s GM. As previously mentioned, he was hired in May of 2018 by the team after serving in a variety of roles as a member of the Nashville Predators’ front office since their inaugural season in 1998-99, including as the assistant GM of Nashville and GM of their AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, since 2006. He made several bad trades over his brief tenure with the Wild, including Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask and Mikael Granlund for Kevin Fiala. The Charlie Coyle for Ryan Donato trade could also be classified as a bad one right now, although Donato is still young and inexperienced with a lot of potential that he may eventually realize. So, the one may come out even, as it certainly worked out for Boston, as Coyle went on to be an intergral piece during their run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. He also had a trade in place for Phil Kessel that saw at least Jason Zucker going the other way which likely would’ve ended poorly, but Kessel vetoed the trade so it never materialized. Fenton also reportedly came close to trading Eric Staal to the Boston Bruins at the deadline, but that fell through and he instead decided to sign him to a two-year contract worth $6.5 million ($3.25 million AAV). Also, in the summer of 2018, he resigned Jason Zucker to a five-year, $27.5 million contract, but his name seems to be popping up in trade rumors frequently since the deadline, including as part of a deal with the Calgary Flames that fell through on deadline day, yet a deal was never completed.
Among his other perplexing moves was Fenton’s last as GM when he signed 32-year-old Mats Zuccarello to a five-year, $30 million contract this summer. Zucc is a great player, don’t get me wrong, and he could really help the team in several areas, but the Wild were tied for the oldest average age in the NHL last season at 28.7 and clearly need to get younger and, if I’m being completely honest here, rebuild. So, signing an older winger to an expensive long-term deal like that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense here. Then, he failed to sign any new young players (although he did resign a few of his own), thus not doing the one thing the team needed most.
Overall, while this was sudden and unexpected, I think the Wild were smart to fire Fenton now. Things clearly weren’t working out with him and he wasn’t doing a good job, so it was good for them to move on quickly instead of be like Edmonton and wait until he completely handcuffed the team for the future. Of course, I also find it funny that in the post by the Athletic, they mentioned Chiarelli as a possible replacement. That would be a terrible idea, and hopefully for the team’s sake that doesn’t happen. I would assume they will work quickly and find a new GM before training camp opens, and I’m curious to see what direction they go in. If they’re smart, they’ll go with someone who’s got experience drafting and developing players, as the Wild need to rebuild or at least retool. But, I guess we’ll see what they do in the coming weeks/months.
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