Though their head coach made a playoff guarantee just six days ago, the Minnesota Wild have traded away another one of their key forwards. Charlie Coyle has been traded to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Ryan Donato and a conditional 2019 fifth-round pick. The pick would become a fourth-round selection if the Bruins advance past the first round of the playoffs this season.
Coyle, 26, has been involved in trade rumors every time the Wild have hit a rough patch over the last few years thanks to his positional flexibility and consistent production, but this move comes after a particularly defeating loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Minnesota is still technically in a playoff spot at the moment but after losing 4-0 to the Ducks they are now 1-6-3 in their last ten and just a point ahead of four different teams in the Western Conference race. Having already sent Nino Niederreiter to the Carolina Hurricanes, Coyle’s departure may be just the start of a culture change in Minnesota in which they try to start again with a different core group.
Versatility has become Coyle’s calling card over the years as the Wild regularly move him around the lineup, including long stretches at both right wing and center. He hit his offensive peak in 2016-17 when he recorded 56 points, but has just 28 this year through 60 games and has struggled to find the consistency that previously stood out through his career. Still, the big-bodied forward can play in a variety of situations and comes with just a $3.2MM cap hit this year and next. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the 2019-20 season.
One of the biggest questions regarding Coyle is where his offense has gone in the playoffs each year. The Wild have faced perennial first-round exits thanks to a struggling postseason offense, and Coyle has been part of those failures. The forward has scored just 15 points in 44 career playoff games, and just six in his last 28.
For the Bruins, Coyle represents an upgrade for their middle-six down the stretch and through next season. Boston has had trouble finding any sort of secondary scoring outside of their top four forwards, and will now add a relatively young option that does have a history of success. It doesn’t hurt that Coyle is a Massachusetts-born Boston University alum and plays a perfect style of game for how head coach Bruce Cassidy likes to run his teams.
Still, giving up on Donato is a somewhat surprising move for the Bruins given his outstanding start just last season. After scoring 43 points in 29 games during his junior season at Harvard and being named a finalist for the Hobey Baker as one of the country’s best collegiate players, Donato burst onto the NHL scene with three points and almost 20 minutes of ice time in his debut. Things haven’t gone quite as well for him since, with just 15 points in his next 45 games but there is still a lot to be excited about with the 22-year old forward.
The Wild are obviously trying to get younger this season and change their core, but on first blush the returns for both Niederreiter and Coyle may seem underwhelming. They’ll hope for more success for Donato than Victor Rask has experienced since his journey from Carolina, which has resulted in two points in ten games and a trip to injured reserve.
Focus now turns to the next moves for both of these teams, as it seems unlikely either is finished. The Wild still have pending free agent Eric Staal and others to deal if they want to blow things up, while the Bruins could still use some more scoring for the middle part of their lineup. Boston has been expected to be involved in the trade market as the deadline approaches, but after this deal it is not clear if they will want to give up the excessive assets required to land some of the bigger names. At least if they do go after the likes of Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene or Mark Stone they are still holding their first-round pick, something that wasn’t needed to land their newest forward.
Michael Russo of The Athletic was first to report that Coyle had been traded.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Bruins?
For donato and a 5th rounder
Other teams must love trading with Don Sweeney. Undervalues his kids and overvalues other teams cast offs
Sweeney needs to be shown the door like yesterday
while I’m not a huge fan of teflon don, he isn’t making a mess of the cap (see Edmonton/first 2 years after chiarelli left boston), and you have to figure there is at least one more move up his sleeve to address the fwd situation.
No doubt PC was worse but Sweeney isn’t far behind
Halak was a good free agent signing other than that complete garbage
Other than McAvoy his drafts have been awful
It’s not a mess, but they’re mortgaging the future and they still aren’t going to beat the Lightning. I would’ve done Panarin with an extension or fringe guys like bringing back Drew Stafford. Well, not fringe guys but not anyone worth Ryan Donato, even with the understanding he hasn’t been good this year.
If we didn’t do the Rick Nash trade and had a prospect like Joe Veleno in the system as a result I would’ve been much more ok with this
Wow. I’m kinda pumped to see Donato come to Minnesota.
You have to give to get something. Just like giving Blake Wheeler for the ‘11 run, it doesn’t make sense right away but the pieces in return gets you to your ultimate goal.
Donato may turn into a 30 goal scorer but Coyle has proven more than once he can score 40 points and be versatile.
It’s a good deal for both teams involved if you ask me.
There’s something else going on here behind the scene. The name Donato is synonymous with Hub Hockey. There’s gotta be some rift between the coaching staff and Ryan Donato. I don’t like the trade, but it could’ve been much worse I think.
The diff between PC and Sweeney is that other GM’s hate PC because he overpays on contracts whereas other GM’s love Sweeney because they take advantage of him in trades.
Im assuming these comments are made by non bruin fans or by ppl who cant skate. Sweeney has built up one if the best prospect pipelines in nhl with his ability to draft. There was no ice available to Donato. So better to trade him while hes worth something… Im assuming firing Julien the all time wins leader in Bs history for Cassidey was a bad move too??
Perfectly said. How many times have the Bruins held onto a prospect, just to watch him rot in Providence or give him away on the waiver wire. Use what you have to make them team better.
You can’t use a player’s potential to be the end all be all.
Donato is not Seguin.
Donato was given multiple opportunities and was either in Providence or healthy scratched in most of recent B’s history. Coyle has a reasonable deal this year and next ($3.2m) so he isn’t a rental, and will be at least a 40-point guy who can log top-6 forward minutes every night. I might not love Sweeney, but unless Donato breaks out big time, this was a good trade.
Yeah Zboril and Senyshyn are so much better than Barzal… Zboril was a fine pick but I personally liked Chabot better. Senyshyn was a 3rd round projection. Barzal or Kyle Connor were the obvious picks there. Everyone missed Boeser though I won’t pin that on Sweeney.
I agree. Donato is definitely not Seguin but I still don’t think he was given enough chances. He’s still growing and at times got knocked off the puck so he was in Cassidy’s doghouse but at only 22 and a Hobey Baker finalist in 2018, he was still a valuable chip that could’ve been used for more than Coyle who at age 26 is not better than Debrusk and claims to want $6 million or more in his next contract.
None of those other “kids” have really done much of anything after Sweeney traded them. Seems he properly values those kids.
Spot on. Coyle is very underrated for his size and skill set. He may not be Blake Wheeler, but he has the potential, especially with Boston playing a more open style than they did when they let Wheeler go.
Debrusk???