Hockey Wilderness

Photo by Erin Loughrey/NHLI via The Minnesota Wild will officially announce their second full-time captain in franchise history prior to the 2020-21 season. According to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin plans to name a new captain to replace our beloved Mikko Koivu before next season starts early in the new year. After holding the ‘C’ for 11 seasons, the Wild decided to let Koivu walk , as his contract expired this offseason — we will not be discussing where he is now, for the sake of everyone’s emotional health. The departure of the Finn...

Photo by Marissa Baecker/ The former Penguins prospect is out to prove he was much more than a throw-in for Jason Zucker. The Minnesota Wild’s strength has been it’s defense for the better part of the last decade, which has lead to a bit of a lack of defensive prospects in the pipeline. And it makes sense, because even if the front office hadn’t been trying to throw every single draft dart they had at finding a prolific goal or point scorer in the middle of the first round or later, any defensive prospect that was NHL-ready would be buried behind established...

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild In case you missed it, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler wrote a fantastic piece with interviews from five difference North American prospects that went overseas to play while their continent is still in its offseason. Wild prospect Ivan Lodnia is one of them and he seems to be loving life in Belarus. [The Athletic] We’re still hung up about the recently released 31 “Reverse Retro” jerseys, so we made an official ranking of them. We have...

via Twitter/NHL We took our time to really get a sense on how we feel about them. With the NHL and Adidas releasing the new “Reverse Retro” jerseys for the 2020-21 season last week, we decided to pause and reflect; really get to know the jersey, to determine whether they are good or not. We did the time, so now you get to enjoy the only correct ranking of all rankings. 1) Arizona Coyotes I’m a firm believer that alternate jerseys should be fun, and there’s nothing more fun than this one. The desert landscape trim and the classic Peyote logo call back to the...

Photo by Bruce Bennett/ Two Wild prospects with incredibly high ceilings are potentially playing for Team Russia at the 2021 World Juniors. Usually lost in the hustle and bustle of the first month of the NHL regular season, the training camps for the upcoming 2021 World Juniors are slowly leaking out. On Friday, Russia released their camp roster with two important names. Minnesota Wild prospects center Marat Khusnutdinov and winger Vladislav Firstov have been invited to Team Russia’s training camp prior to the winter tournament taking place in Edmonton,...

Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via The Minnesota Wild’s most recent first-round selection has tested positive for COVID-19 while playing in Swizerland. The National League, Switzerland’s top domestic division, is currently in the middle of a massive outbreak. Some teams have not played since last month, with multiple staff members and players testing positive. One of those teams is the ZSC Lions, and one of those players is Minnesota Wild top prospect Marco Rossi. Shared w/ permission: #MNWild Marco Rossi tested positive for COVID. He’s starting...

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports After a good first season of professional hockey, Sturm nearly snuck into the top ten of our list Every offseason there are always at least a handful of college free agents that are signed by NHL teams. Most of them don’t turn out to be much more than good minor-league players or depth forwards, but there are exceptions to the rule, and the 25-year-old Nico Sturm seems to be on his way to being one of those exceptions for the Minnesota Wild. After a very good junior season at Clarkson University where he recorded 45 points in 39...

Photo by Elsa/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild In the next installation of our Top 25 Under 25 series, we have Brennan Menell, the offensively-gifted defenseman that’s over in the KHL for the next season. [Hockey Wilderness] The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler speaks with Wild prospect Ivan Lodnia (and four other North American prospects that went over to Europe in the fall offseason), to touch base with how he’s doing in the KHL. [The Athletic] Okay, seriously, did Zach Parise design a hat?...

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports Despite moving to the KHL for this season, the talented offensive defenseman jumped up six spots on our list. Originally signed by the Wild as an undrafted free agent out of the out of the Western Hockey League after the 2016-17 season, defenseman Brennan Menell has shown good improvement over each of the last 3 seasons. Despite not being in the Minnesota Wild organization this year after leaving for the KHL, he has climbed up to the No. 12 spot on Hockey Wilderness’ Top 25 Under 25 list. A talented offensive defenseman, Menell’s...

Staff Photo by Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild One thing is in the mind of every fan of the Minnesota Wild: Did Zach Parise really design a hat? [Hockey Wilderness] Next up on our Top 25 Under 25 ranking is 21-year-old forward Connor Dewar making the No. 13 spot. [Hockey Wilderness] Off the trail... An entire division in the East Coast Hockey League is not going to partake in the 2020-21 season. The players that are on exclusive contracts with those six...

NHL/ An NHL veteran now, but a fashion designer in the future. Many NHL players have different talents off the ice. Vancouver Canucks goaltender Braeden Holtby can play the guitar, Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine is very, very good at Fortnite, and Connor McDavid can dress up in questionable halloween costumes. Everyone has a talent. But do the Minnesota Wild have one of their own fashion designers, blossoming right in front of their eyes? On Tuesday, the day after the entire league released their own individual “Reverse Retro” jerseys, the Wild announced that...

Eric Miller/NHLI via The 21-year-old is coming off his first professional season with the Iowa Wild and straight into No. 13 on our list. Gleaning value out of your third-round picks can be difficult, but Connor Dewar is proving to be the exception to that rule. Drafted as an over-ager, Dewar was most likely seen as a “project”, with minus skating ability and not much offensive flash. But since his draft year he’s been able to improve on his strengths, improving his game without the puck and bringing his skating to an average level. ...

Photo by Mike Stobe/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild The youngest member of our Top 25 Under 25 list is 18-year-old Marat Khusnutdinov, who we clearly have high hopes for at No. 14. [Hockey Wilderness] In case you live under a rock, the Minnesota Wild released new “Reverse Retro” jerseys this week, along with the 30 other NHL franchises. Do you like them? Do you hate them? Have your say. [Hockey Wilderness] Off the trail... As reported and summarized by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the...

Photo by Peter Kovalev\TASS via The 2020 second-rounder has jumped into the top-15 of our ranking. It’s human nature to be extremely excited about something new. The shiny toy that was just placed in a child’s lap, for the other now-older toy to be tossed aside like some piece of rotten trash behind a shopping mall. The grass is certainly not always greener, but when it comes to Minnesota Wild prospects, the grass we were given in the first place was full of mid-20s post-hype prospects that were idling in the minor leagues. General manager Bill Guerin and director of amateur...

via Adidas/NHL Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild The Minnesota Wild unveiled their fresh new “Reverse Retro” jersey and we’re feeling weird about it. They’re gorgeous, but it has a weird stench about it. [Hockey Wilderness] Speaking of the new jerseys, The Athletic’s Michael Russo gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the design came together. [The Athletic] Russian sniper Vladislav Firstov is next on our Top 25 Under 25 ranking, earning this 15th spot on the list. [Hockey Wilderness] In case you missed...