By Zackery Robert
Off we go to one of the most hockey crazy places in the US, Minnesota. The Wild have been in the league since the year 2000 and have subsequently been drafting since the year 2000. Minnesota is a fairly new franchise and have had a lot of good high level prospects get drafted to their organisation in the last handful of years.
First player to talk about is a pretty obvious one, when you think of Minnesota one of, if not the, first player you think of is Mikko Koivu. Koivu, the brother of former Montreal Canadiens draftee Saku Koivu was drafted in the 2001 draft sixth overall. Koivu would end up playing 15 of his 16 seasons in Minnesota being their captain for 11 of those seasons. Koivu was a competent two way centre who provided some quality offence while being a sturdy defender. He was the longest tenured player in Wild history and was definitely worth the pick, he finished his career in Minnesota with 205 goals and 504 assists for 709 points in 1028 games played.
In their early beginnings in the draft Minnesota drafted and signed a lot of players who would become their core players. When you think of the Wild you think of these players, Niklas Backstrom, Josh Harding, Nick Schultz, and the player we’ll focus on next, Marian Gaborik. Gaborik was the Wild’s first ever pick back in 2000, he was selected third overall and went on to play eight seasons for the club between 2000-2009. He was electric for the new franchise and quickly became their hottest commodity. Gaborik had highlight reel goals and great speed. He had five of his eight seasons be 30+ goal seasons with one of those being a 42 goal season. He brought a superstardom to the Wild and he was able to be the face of the franchise until he left.
Coming up third is former eighth overall pick Pierre Marc Bouchard. Bouchard was someone who lived up to his potential almost fully. With a handful of seasons in the 50-60 points range Bouchard showcased that he can be a quality second line player for many years. Bouchard played 10 years for the Wild between 2002-2013. After that he went on to play for the New York Islanders during 2013-2014 after which he proceeded to play in the Swiss-A league until his retirement in 2016
Moving on to picks that should not have been selected where they were. We will start with a former fourth overall pick, Benoit Pouliot was chosen fourth overall in 2005 and never hit the mark, that’s it, plain and simple he was just not what a top five pick should be, he never had more than 36 points in a season and during his time in Minnesota his season high in points was a mere 11 points in 37 games. Pouliot played 65 games for the Wild in between 2006-2010. After that he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Guillaume Latendresse. This pick was not it for the Wild and finds its way onto this list.
Moving on to player number two we find ourselves entering the 2004 draft where Minnesota held the 12th pick in the draft. With their selection the Wild would go with Minnesota native AJ Thelen. Thelen was a defenseman and spent two seasons with Michigan State University. Upon leaving school he played in the AHL, ECHL, but never the NHL. Not once did Thelen crack the roster and after playing for the Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL in 2010/2011, Thelen retired. Much was left to be desired from this pick and with that, it ends up on this list.
For the third and final player on this list we will move forward two years to the 2006 entry draft where the Minnesota Wild slotted into 9th position. With this choice they went with Halifax native James Sheppard. Sheppard would play one more year in the QMJHL before making his move to the NHL. Sheppard would play the next three seasons for the Wild and record a stat line of, 224 games, 11 goals, and 38 assists for a grand total of 49 points. After his third and final season with the Wild in 2010, Sheppard was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a third round pick. You can find Sheppard now playing in Europe in the Austrian league.
Currently the Minnesota Wild have been eliminated from the playoffs and now look toward the draft. The Wild line up with six picks, 1st, 2nd, 2nd (VGK), 5th, 6th, 7th. Being that Minnesota finished with the 11th best record in the league when it is all said and done they can find themselves somewhere between 20-22 in the draft. At this point Minnesota looks to be pretty stacked up on forwards, with Kaprizov, Boldy, and Eriksson Ek, not to mention, Marco Rossi and the newly drafted Liam Ohgren, Minnesota looks to be pretty alright on forwards. Looking at the prospects and the rankings, a couple defence players Minnesota can look at drafting could be Lukas Dragicevic, Mikhail Gulyayev and even a dark horse in Cam Allen, he has so many great offensive tools. Allen has come off of a poor performance this year but he has many of the intangibles to become a top four defender so this could be a great pick for Minnesota because he will be allowed to develop for two to three years whilst Minnesota is still very competitive.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.