NHL teams
Pierre LeBrun, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Rumblings: Wild pickup of Bergenheim could pay off in a big way

Having picked Devan Dubnyk off the scrap heap and seen him turn into Georges Vezina, one assumes newly acquired Sean Bergenheim is now going to turn into a 50-goal scorer for the Minnesota Wild.

We jest, we jest, but you have to admire general manager Chuck Fletcher's work here.

He gave up just a third-round pick to fix his goaltending issues and now, once again, just a third-round pick in 2016 (plus getting a seventh-rounder back) in return for a versatile player in Bergenheim, a guy the Wild can plug into almost any role on their top three lines.

"He's a straight-line player, he likes to go north, he pursues the puck well, he scores most of his goals right around the paint," Fletcher told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "He likes to shoot the puck, he's a volume shooter and a guy that likes to get in the dirty areas. We lost [Ryan Carter, Matt Cooke] and [Jason Zucker], three guys that play with energy and play hard and get to the net, so we have a void for that type of player and I think Sean will come in and add those elements for us. Plus, he brings a lot of experience."

The 31-year-old winger, a UFA July 1, has 17 career points (12-5) in 23 playoff games with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, so that was also part of the attraction. Plus, there's the fact Bergenheim represents well in the advanced stats -- he's a good puck-possession man.

The Wild are also getting a motivated player who felt miscast in Florida. This could be one of those sleeper pickups who pays big dividends in the playoffs, if the Wild get there.

In the meantime, Fletcher might not be done ahead of Monday's trade deadline.

"Yeah, we're still looking," Fletcher said. "We like our team, but again, we're down three forwards and two defensemen, with 22 games to go, sometimes it's hard to get healthier. If we can continue to improve our depth and the acquisition cost makes sense, we'll look at it. We're not trying to reinvent our team, we just want to make sure we have enough depth and enough quality veteran players to get through these next 22 games and hopefully make the playoffs."

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