Wild giving newly acquired defenseman Middleton shot on top pairing in debut

The Minnesota Wild were one of the busiest teams at the trade deadline, and it appears they have found a spot for one of their newly acquired players.

The San Jose Sharks traded hard-nosed, physical defenseman Jacob Middleton to the Wild in exchange for Kaapo Kahkonen and a fifth-round pick. On paper, this looks like a pretty fair trade, maybe leaning more in the Sharks favor, but the Wild may have a plan to boost Middleton's value from what it was in San Jose.

According to The Athletic's Michael Russo, the plan is to start Middleton on the team's top pairing with captain Jared Spurgeon. Spurgeon has turned into one of the best shutdown defensemen in the league, although he does not get a ton of the spotlight.

Head coach Dean Evason is excited to put a big, bruising defenseman with his undersized captain to say the least.

"He's bigger than him," coach Dean Evason said. "He's a big body. The first time seeing him, he skates real well. He moves the puck well. He played big minutes there. He's a physical presence. Just someone that makes it really difficult to get to the net. I'm not just talking hitting or fighting. It's going to be difficult when we've got a big, strong man that's going to be physically engaged. Hopefully it deters some people (from) wanting to get to the front of our net."

Middleton did spend some time playing with Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson in San Jose, but he is excited for the new experience of playing with a team's true number one defenseman.

"It's a nice pat on the back again, even though it's Game 1 and I still got a whole new staff I have to impress. But management and scouts were probably the only ones who got to see me and my time with San Jose. The coaches here were worried about preparing to play against every other team, so they don't know me yet. I still got to make a good first impression on those guys."

The Wild will be testing out the new pairings for Thursday's game versus the Vancouver Canucks. Along with this, newly acquired goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is also expected to make his Minnesota Wild debut.

Meet the NEW BEAUTY#mnwild defenseman "Jake" Middleton discusses his hard-nosed style, being traded, the mustache, the missing teeth and much more in this fun READ>>>https://t.co/af1nJlDQNS— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 23, 2022

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