After a very disappointing season by the Minnesota Swarm, in which the team went 4-14 and scored fewer than 200 goals on the season, the Swarm have been one of the more active teams in this offseason. They have already thrown out their usual playbook of acquiring as many draft picks as possible and started to trade away some of their horded surplus of picks.
Sticking to the game plan the Swarm made a relatively early move to shore up the net minding. The Swarm traded starting goalie Tyler Carlson and their first overall pick in this year’s draft and second round pick in 2015 to the Edmonton Rush in exchange for this year’s third overall pick and goaltender Brodie MacDonald. This trade looks to work best for the Rush right of the bat, they get a proven backup goalie and a top pick in this year’s draft. Fortunately this will most likely workout best for the Swarm as they needed to unload some future picks and they needed to find a goalie that can stand up to a full NLL of the top goalies in the NLL. Minnesota will be looking for MacDonald to come in right away and contribute, like former Swarm goalie Nick Patterson.
The Swarm and Rush didn’t stop at swapping goalies though the Rush also moved Alex Turner to Minnesota for his second stint with the Swarm. In the trade Minnesota is giving Edmonton its own third round pick in the 2015 draft. Turner was with the Swarm for one game in 2010 before being signed by the now in limbo Philadelphia Wings in the following season where he put up a career high 39 points. Turner is a big lefty that will be fighting in a good group of forwards come training camp.
Along with these trades the Swarm also have 3 top ten draft picks in the upcoming draft, numbers three, five and 10. They also have room to possibly pick up some skilled veterans in the now wide open free agent period. With having the option to pick players up the top of the list would have to include players like John Tavares, Andrew McBride, Sean Pollock, and half of Philly’s standing roster.
The Swarm have options and can only improve at this point. Last year a certain writer was calling for a parade down Kellogg boulevard in St. Paul. Now this year the same writer has a healthy optimism with the team going into the September 22 draft and subsequent training camp later in the fall and winter.
