Maple Leafs officially steal top scout from Minnesota Wild

On Sunday, I covered multiple stories that suggested Minnesota Wild director of amateur scouting Judd Bracket would be leaving the organization, and that news is now official.

According to a report from National Hockey League insider Pierre LeBrun, Brackett has finalized a new deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs and will be joining their organization with his contract with the Wild officially coming to an end. According to LeBrun, the announcement from the Maple Leafs is expected at some point later today.

Brackett has one of the best amateur drafting track records across the entire NHL and is considered to be one of the very best at what he does. During his previous tenure with the Vancouver Canucks he was instrumental in drafting Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, two of the team's most dynamic players, and is largely credited as the man who pushed for the Canucks to select Quinn Hughes with the 7th overall pick at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

Brackett not only drafted Quinn Hughes for the Canucks but also has his fingerprints all over the trade that would eventually bring him to Minnesota as well. In that trade the Wild would give up forward Marco Rossi, forward Liam Ohgren and defenseman Zeev Buium, all of whom were selected while Brackett was overseeing the draft for that organization.

It also has to be said that the Wild benefited tremendously this season from the play of goaltender Jesper Wallstedt who eventually won the #1 starting goaltender away from Filip Gustavsson. Wallstedt had a 2.58 goals against average and a .916 save percentage on the season and was of course yet another player that was selected by Brackett during his tenure with the Wild.

A big loss for the Wild but a big win for the new Maple Leafs front office who will be adding one of the most well respected amateur scouts in the entire league.