(USA TODAY Sports)

On Monday morning, NHL defenseman Jordan Leopold was in Columbus and his wife and four kids were missing him back in Minnesota. By Monday night, thanks in part to an open letter penned by his 11-year-old daughter Jordyn, all that changed.

“My kids picked me up at the airport last night with open arms,” Leopold told reporters Tuesday. “I try not to get emotional, but it is.”

Jamie Leopold, Jordyn’s mom, said the emotional letter came as a surprise to her too.

“I didn’t even know she wrote it,” Jamie said to radio station KFAN. “She left it on the counter, went to school one day, and I read it and just started bawling.”

That’s pretty much the reaction every one had after reading this letter. Jordyn doesn’t really pull any punches and talks frankly about how much she and her siblings need their dad around.

“We are living in Minnesota right now and I am lost without my dad and so is my mom, my two sisters and my brother,” she wrote.

Jamie Leopold then shared the letter with friends and family on Facebook, intending to keep the letter within a close social circle. But, the letter quickly went viral after Jordan’s trade from the Blue Jackets to the Wild finally took place.

“With anybody that has kids, you guys know they take things upon themselves sometimes,” Jordan Leopold said. “She was writing a little bit persuasively at school and thought it was a good idea to write a persuasive letter.”

Well, it worked. Not many trade deadline stories have as happy an ending as this one.

(Thanks to the Minnesota Wild for sharing this story)