Photo: Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty
One of the most challenging things about being a professional athlete is the unpredictability of a season, as players can often be traded to a new team without warning and regardless of what is going on in their personal lives.
On Monday as the NHL hit its trade deadline — the point where teams can’t exchange players for the rest of the season — the Minnesota Wild sent forward Mikael Granlund to the Nashville Predators for winger Kevin Fiala. Though it was not the only trade to occur in the hours before the deadline, at the time it was announced, Granlund was with his fiancée, Emmi Kainulainen, who was in labor with the couple’s first child.
During a conference with reporters, Wild general manager Paul Fenton spoke the unfortunate timing of the situation.
“The Granlunds are honestly in labor right now, so to have this happen makes it even more difficult to disrupt people’s lives,” Fenton said on Monday, according toFOX 9.
Granlund re-signed with Minnesotain 2017 in a three-year deal, and neither he nor his fiancée has commented publicly on the trade as of Tuesday morning.
“Ok bebe, stop hiding I’m ready to meet you already,” she wrote.
AsUSA Todaynotes, from a hockey standpoint, the move from Minnesota to Nashville isn’t a bad deal for the hockey player from Finland, who turns 27 on Tuesday.
The Predators are currently third in the Western Conference and are set to make a strong push for the Stanley Cup, while the Wild are still on the edge of qualifying for the playoffs.
Granlund is also joining Predators center,Mike Fisher, whose wife is singerCarrie Underwood. The two share sons Isaiah Michael, 4, and newborn Jacob Bryan.
source: people.com
