3ITB’s Top 33 Wild Players of All Time – #26

Aaron

Zidlicky

26. Marek Židlický – D

4 Seasons,  241 Games, 25 Goals, 98 Assists, 123 Points

Marek Židlický started his professional career in Finland, and due to a contract dispute with the Rangers, held out there until he was 26, when the Rangers traded him to the Nashville Predators.  In 2008, after 4 solid seasons with the Perds, the Wild made a deal for 31 year-old Marek Židlický, sending Ryan Jones and a 2nd Round draft pick to Nashville in return.

Židlický, primarily an offensive-defenseman, led all Wild defensemen in scoring during his first two seasons in Minnesota. In his third year, he was able to keep scoring at a tremendous pace, but lost almost half of the season due to a series of injuries.

In February of 2012, GM Chuck Fletcher made a move to free up cap space (for what would end up being the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter), and Židlický was dealt in to the New Jersey Devils for former Wild players Kurtis Foster & Stephane Veilleux, promising prospect Nick Palmieri, a 3rd round pick that was sent to the Islanders in the Nino/Clutterbuck trade and a 2nd Round pick that would become the recently released Raphael Bussieres.  While Palmieri and the draft picks never panned out, the Wild needed to move Židlický if they were going to make the moves that they ended up making the following off-season.

And for the record, we still call him ZID-lick-EE, not that weird ZHID-lisk-EE pronunciation he wanted to be called by.

Previously on our list:

 

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