Minnesota Wild fans express their sadness after Kevin Fiala trade

It's officially the end of the Kevin Fiala era with the Minnesota Wild, as his negotiating rights were traded by general manager Bill Guerin to the Los Angeles Kings earlier today. The Kings then made him an official member of the team, locking him up to a lengthy seven year contract extension. 

Fiala played a major role in Minnesota's regular season success last season with 33 goals and 85 points. It almost seemed as though he seemed to acknowledge that his time with the Wild could have come to an end when he posted a picture of himself on social media celebrating a goal with the caption, “Thank you Minnesota,” followed by green heart. He just completed one-year, $5.1-million deal with the eligibility to have become a restricted free agent on July 13 with arbitration rights

But of course, the Wild are currently in the throes of some salary cap discomfort, to say the least. As it stands now, they have $75.1 million invested in 18 players for 2022-23. Oh, and there's also the matter of the $12.7 million in dead cap space thanks to the contract buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

And it wasn't long after news of the trade broke on social media that Wild fans expressed their sadness, and there were more than a few tweets directed at former GM Chuck Fletcher, who signed Parise and Suter to those hefty deals a decade ago.