Player-for-player trade between Wild and Blues just days before Winter Classic

The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will face each other in the cold on New Year’s Day, but they managed to come to agreements on a trade days prior.

On Wednesday, the Wild acquired forward Nolan Stevens for forward Will Bitten.

The Wild gets Stevens, who is 25 years old and has been batting to make a name for himself in the AHL for the last four seasons ever since leading Northeastern University and captaining in his last collegiate year.

He was selected in the fifth round by the Blues back in 2016 and collected 12 points in 20 games so far for the Springfield Thunderbirds.

As for Bitten who will join the Blues, he was originally acquired by the Wild from the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Gustav Olofsson and has spent last four seasons in Iowa. This season, he has tallied eight points in 23 games.
This is the first transaction after the holiday roster freeze.