Kevin Fiala Trade

Toodles Kevin Fiala, Enjoy LA

NHL Wild
Dev

On Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after Bill Guerin stopped by the 10K House for an episode of It’s A Bit, Kevin Fiala was finally traded away from the Minnesota Wild. Fiala was shipped to the LA Kings in exchange for their first round pick this year (pick #19) as well as current Gopher defenseman and Kirill Kaprizov superfan Brock Faber.

It’s been a long time coming, and while we are certainly sad to see one of the biggest man-rockets in the state leave, we all kind of knew it was inevitable. Especially when it was revealed that Kevin Fiala’s new deal with LA is a 7 year 7.875 AAV deal. We can all rest easy knowing that there was no world in which the Wild could/would dish out nearly 8 sheets for FiFi, no matter how handsome he is. God, the city of Los Angeles is going to be so good to him.

I mean SHEESH

Kevin Fiala: A Weapon on (and off) the ice

In addition to looking like a Swiss Adonis, Kevin Fiala is also extremely good at the sport of hockey. You clicked on this link, you know this already. My man would have broken the all-time points record for the Wild this year if not for a certain Russian fella on the team.

If you can watch this without feeling a little tingle, please consult a doctor.

Look, the point is Kev is an absolute weapon on and off the ice. His wife is delightful. My favorite thing is that he went full Christian Ponder this year and got secretly married and then absolutely dominated from that point forward. At the end of the day, Kev did what was best for him. And you gotta respect that. It would be nice to see him in a Wild sweater this season, sure. But I’ll never bash an athlete for getting the bag when possible. There’s only a finite amount of time they have to rack up generational wealth, so rack away. But in a hard cap league, and with the buyouts of Parise and Suter looming, Fiala staying here just wasn’t feasible.

Now, don’t get me started on the buyouts being the reason he’s gone. Lest you forget, if those two HADN’T been bought out, Fiala would have been shipped out last year. It’s only due to the space the buyouts created that we were able to afford one more year of the Switzerland Sniper.

When One Door Closes Another One Opens

As we look forward, the state of hockey couldn’t be more proud to have one of our own. Brock Faber A.KA. Jumbo Brodin. What a lot of people (including himself) didn’t know, is that Bossman actually announced him in the 2022 Hendrickson Foundation Festival celebrity game:

Honestly such a crisp, clear, and professional announcement of our new defenseman (Dev had to get on a plane so Bossman is closing out this blog).

But in all honesty, we’re going to miss Kevin. It’s going to be hard to match the production and chemistry he brought this organization. But at the end of the day, there is a bigger picture. A future group of champions waiting for their shot to prove that they belong in the state of hockey. So fuck it, we move on.

In Billy Gambles we trustšŸ«”