The Minnesota Wild are not off to the greatest of starts for the 2023-24 season after hopefully hitting rock bottom against the Dallas Stars in an 8-3 thrashing that left Wild fans wondering exactly where this team is headed. While the short-term answer is unknown, the long-term answer lies in the numerous prospects that they have drafted who continue to play their hearts out in their various leagues across the world.
Canadian Hockey Leagues a Gold Mine
The Wild have an extremely strong group of players lighting it up in their various leagues across Canada, although perhaps none have shown continued growth as strong as Rasmus Kumpulainen. He was number five in our October rankings, but the second-round pick playing in his first season with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) has found his feet after coming over from Finland. He produced seven points and was a plus-4 in his six games over the last two weeks with three multi-point games, bringing him to 16 points in 18 games this season.
The Wild’s other OHL prospects obviously did not want to be upstaged so both Servac Petrovsky of the Owen Sound Attack and Hunter Haight of the Saginaw Spirit matched Kumpulainen’s seven points, although Haight’s came mostly in the form of assists as his team is on an active five-game winning streak. Petrovsky managed his strong production despite his team dropping five of their last six.
Hopping over to the Western Hockey League (WHL) we find the point-production machine that is Riley Heidt still pumping it out with the Prince George Cougars, adding another two goals and three assists in four games to bring his season totals to an astonishing 27 points in just 16 games played.
College Action Heating Up
It was the Wild’s seventh-rounder from the 2023 Draft that led their NCAA prospects over the last two weeks as the 19-year-old Jimmy Clark collected three points in four games with the University of Minnesota while also being a plus-3 in his team’s two wins and two ties. Defenseman Ryan Healey managed to match Clark’s three points with Harvard University, but a tough game against Quinnipiac on Nov. 4 left him a minus-3 over that period.
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Second-rounder Rieger Lorenz has started heating up as his two points with the University of Denver puts him at six points in ten games this season. His team produced a massive 24 goals in just four games over the last two weeks, leaving Lorenz as a plus-6 player. Unfortunately the same can’t be said about their first-round pick Charlie Stramel, who played in his first game with the University of Wisconsin since Oct. 14 after being injured, but was held pointless in their 5-4 win against the University of Michigan on Nov. 3, and has not played again since.
Professional Leagues a Mixed Bag
The Minnesota Wild’s goaltending might not be performing at the expected level, but their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliated Iowa Wild’s goaltending is exceeding even their highest expectations as Jesper Wallstedt continues to make it known that he is going to be a force to deal with in the NHL sooner rather than later. He posted wins in all four games played over the last two weeks with a .968 save percentage (SV%) and a 1.25 goals-against average (GAA) including a 24-save shutout against the Chicago Wolves on Nov. 12 after stopping 35 of 37 shots the night before against the Rockford IceHogs.
While the Wild do not have many offensive prospects in Iowa, the ones that they do have are producing as Sammy Walker collected five assists in five games, and Adam Beckman improved to eight points in 12 games this season. Pavel Novak, a fifth-rounder in 2020, is wasting no time after beating cancer to get himself back on track. He collected his first AHL goal on Nov. 11, just a few games after being called up from the ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders, and immediately followed it up with an assist the next night.
Up in the big mess that is the Minnesota Wild, Marco Rossi continues to shine with four points in their last six games. He may have been dropped down to the second line, but it is obvious that he is one of the team’s most effective players at five-on-five. Brock Faber also continues to be one of their top defenders even after the return of captain Jared Spurgeon. Faber collected three assists but has seen his ice time drop back down to a more reasonable 20 minutes per game since Spurgeon has absorbed some of the load. It is scary to think about where the Wild would be if their rookies were not playing at this elite level.
Talent Still Years Away
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of being a Wild fan at this moment in time is that although the team is struggling and they have an amazing prospect pool, there is no immediate help coming. Most of their young players who are lighting it up are still years away from making an NHL debut, and the only one who may be ready is Wallstedt, but throwing him into such a mess and expecting him to be a difference-maker would pose too much of a risk to such a valuable piece of the future. Instead, the Wild will have to find a way out of it themselves.