Last week on Twitter, friend of the show, Chris Frost, suggested that we do a Top 50 All-Time NHL players list. We thought that that was a good idea, but we’re Wild fans.  So we figured we’d do our own twist on the list and put together our list of the Top 33 Wild players of All-Time.

Each of us filled out a ballot sheet, we let Google Drive do the heavy lifting, and we now have our list. While it might not be perfect, and some choices might be borderline criminal (which we’ll discuss with an end-of-the list podcast), it represents what we believe makes a great Wild player.  We’ll be making a post a day for the next month, so enjoy!

Without further ado, here’s #33:

33. Kim Johnsson – D

4 Seasons, 289 Games, 15 Goals, 72 Assists, 87 Points

In 2006, 30 year old Kim Johnsson came to the Wild as a free-agent hot off a solid four year stint with the Philadelphia Flyers.  In Lemaire’s rent-a-captain system, Kim saw time as Captain, and he led the team in ATOI for three consecutive seasons.  Because of being in Lemaire’s defense-first system, he saw a significant drop in scoring during his four years in St. Paul, averaging just 0.3 points per game. While not at the same level as his Flyer days, it’s still good enough to be ranked amongst the highest scoring defensemen in Wild history.

In 2010, Johnsson was traded to Chicago, paired with Nick Leddy, in return for Cam Barker.  Even though he ended up being a negligible part of this trade due to a career-ending concussion just 8 games into his Blackhawks career, he did play a part in what is possibly the worst trade in franchise history.