Hockey Wilderness

Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via The Edina boy is coming to St. Paul. It was rumored for a few days but finally made official. Announced by the team on Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Wild have signed center Sammy Walker to a two-year entry-level contract. Something sounds good about Sammy Walker staying in the #StateOfHockey, eh? Welcome , @walker_sammy10! #mnwild— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) August 18, 2022 The 23-year-old was originally a seventh-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning all the way back in 2017, but he remained on the...

Photo by Andy Devlin/ The World Juniors quarterfinals was filled with drama and upsets. The 2022 World Juniors is still happening, but is nearing its end. On Wednesday, the four games of the quarterfinals took place and it featured a grand total of six Minnesota Wild prospects. Some had decent performances, and some just lost control completely and skidded their way to an early tournament exit. Let’s just see how they did. Jesper Wallstedt, Sweden vs. Latvia The Wild’s top goaltending prospect had a fairly quiet game against the lowly Latvians. It was a Cinderella...

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild In case you haven’t read it yet, The Athletic’s Michael Russo put out an enjoyable piece after visiting Minnesota Wild top prospect Marco Rossi’s family home in Austria. It includes stories of his father making long drives when Marco was just a kid pursuing hockey, and how he almost killed a horse when he was practicing shots outside his house. [The Athletic] Our Top 25 Under 25 series continues and most recently, we featured...

Photo by Richard T Gagnon/ The incoming Boston College captain plays an exciting game, earning himself an improved spot this year. Welcome to this year’s Top 25 Under 25 series. If you’re unfamiliar, we’re going player-by-player in a ranking of the top 25 Minnesota Wild players that are under the age of 25. It’s fairly simple. Enjoy! Finishing just ahead of teammate Nikita Nesterenko (who was taken six picks after him by the Wild in the same draft) in this year’s rankings, Warren was one of the few overachievers on a Boston College team that had a rough year....

Photo by Richard T Gagnon/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild The Minnesota Wild have been playing it cool in free agency. They have focused on some minor deals to get through their current cap crunch and leaving some open spots for young players to battle for during training camp. One name that they have been connected to is University of Minnesota Gophers captain and Edina, Minn. native Sammy Walker. The 23-year-old center was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning but he will reportedly not go back to...

Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via After a promising first year at BC, Nesterenko had a setback year with an Eagles club that struggled mightily. Welcome to this year’s Top 25 Under 25 series. If you’re unfamiliar, we’re going player-by-player in a ranking of the top 25 Minnesota Wild players that are under the age of 25. It’s fairly simple. Enjoy! When Nesterenko was drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 draft, expectations were far from consistent. However, even after having a solid post-draft year in the BCHL, it is highly unlikely that many...

Photo by Lawrence Scott/ The couple of Wild prospects on Team Canada have not been good, at all. The World Juniors is typically a place for us to get a glimpse of our favorite team’s top prospects and what they actually look like during live and full games, instead of six-minute clips on YouTube. That eventually turns into being either thoroughly impressed by some teenaged performance, or just disappointed and quickly forgotten about as we turn towards the Big Boys of the actual team we support. This year, for the Minnesota Wild, as the group stage wraps up for the...

Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Hunter Haight’s development might have been stymied by pandemic shortened seasons, but there’s hope yet for this speedy center. There is certainly reason for optimism for our 22nd-ranked player, Hunter Haight. He is the prototypical example of a player who was affected by canceled Covid-19 seasons. After losing a year of hockey in 2020-21, he took some time getting back on his feet in the 2021-22 season with Barrie with only 22 goals, 41 points in 63 games. He had a few weeks in mid February where he boasted 12 points...

Photo by Andy Devlin/ The weekend had some highs and lows. On Sunday, were were treated with a full all-you-can-eat buffet of watching Minnesota Wild prospects play in the 2022 World Juniors for their respective countries. A total of six players within the Minnesota system were on the ice throughout the day. We won’t waste your time with some preamble with some flowery language about the future of this team, but let’s just get to the action and some impressions. Servac Petrovsky, Finland vs. Slovakia After putting on a very good performance in the opening game of...

Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via The Swedish blueliner did his thing to keep a ranking. Welcome to this year’s Top 25 Under 25 series. If you’re unfamiliar, we’re going player-by-player in a ranking of the top 25 Minnesota Wild players that are under the age of 25. It’s fairly simple. Enjoy! No one should be surprised if Simon Johansson is considered a late-bloomer and suddenly blossoms into a decent-to-good defenseman during his first taste of North American professional hockey this season. It has taken a while for him to get here, but after just...

Photo by Lawrence Scott/ The third day of the Wild-featured World Juniors was highlighted by the American captain. After a disappointing second day of the 2022 World Juniors for our Minnesota Wild prospects — featuring a disconnected Canadian defense featuring Carson Lambos and just no points for the 2022 first-rounder Liam Ohgren — the third day was a little bit of a treat. While no one made any game look easy, there were at least goals and points to talk about. So how did they do on the third day of this Under-20 tournament? David Spacek, Finland vs. Czechia In...

Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Studios/ Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild A Minnesota Wild legend is pacing the torch to the next wave of Slovakian talent in the NHL. In a recent interview, Marian Gaborik explained that he has been keeping in touch with Montreal Canadiens first-overall selection Juraj Slafkovsky as he makes his next big step into the best league in the world. [NHL dot com] At the second day of the 2022 World Juniors, there was not much to say. The goaltending prospect was the...

Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via We’re in the middle of T25U25 season but let’s look at some eligible players that fall below the ranking. Welcome to this year’s Top 25 Under 25 series. If you’re unfamiliar, we’re going player-by-player in a ranking of the top 25 Minnesota Wild players that are under the age of 25. It’s fairly simple. Enjoy! We’re not going to unveil who is at No. 23 of our 2022 Top 25 Under 25 list today, but instead, let’s just look over some names of players that were eligible to be on the list, but just missed the cut....

Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via In the second day of the junior tournament, some Wild prospects did some things that are off the record. We were treated with a little bit of an appetizer during the opening day of the 2022 World Juniors on Tuesday. Minnesota Wild depth prospects like Servac Petrovsky were able to shine above some of their teammates. But now, on Wednesday, the second day of the tournament, we get to the real meaty section of the Wild’s prospect pool. Some of the most prominent and talented players that the Wild had the honor of drafting...

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. That’s Wild There’s no real NHL news happening anymore. We’re in that month-long void of any transactions really taking place and we’re just twiddling our thumbs until training camp. At least there’s some hockey-relating thing going on. The World Juniors! On Tuesday the first day went down and one Wild prospect made sure that everyone knew his name by the end of it: Servac Petrovsky. [Hockey Wilderness] And our Top 25 Under 25 ranking continued yesterday, listing center Sam...