“When we talk in our organization about what is our strategic plan, our plan is to win the Stanley Cup,” he said. “We made a step last year. Now we need to make another step this year. We can’t trade any of our young players that we think are going to be a huge part of winning that Stanley Cup. We were able to accomplish that and still get a great player [Moulson] and a player who we think can take us to another step. That’s why we did the trade. It’s not so we make the playoffs, it’s so we get to go further.”

-Craig Leipold, owner of the Minnesota Wild. More from Leipold by Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune.