When the Minnesota Wild acquired forward Kevin Fiala from the Nashville Predators in a straight swap for Mikael Granlund, no one could foresee what kind of player the now-24 year old would turn into. Even as an 11th-overall pick in 2014, the Swiss national would never really get that top-line opportunity on a Predators team that needed to make deep postseason runs to justify some of their other transactions.
Just five seasons in the Nashville organization and 204 NHL games later, Fiala was sent to the Wild for about a full season’s worth of Granlund and are currently left empty handed after the one-for-one trade.