My Minnesota Wild 2023 Mock Draft - v2

Well, this isn't exactly where we'd like to be drafting. And it's not where we'd like Vegas to be drafting either, frankly. And it's certainly not where we would like the Chicago Blackhawks to be drafting. First overall? Give me a break. 

Ugh. Whatever. I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about who the kids are that will carry the Minnesota Wild to their golden era. It's coming, baby. And I'm excited to find out how this next crop is going to move the needle for our team. Let's go. 

21st overall: Calum Ritchie - C - Oshawa Generals / OHL

I gotta say, I really agonized over what I was going to do here. This is a draft where I think the Wild have a shot at a couple of really intriguing center options despite their first pick being in the back half of the first round, so there was a real absence of the no-brainer pick. 

Eventually, I settled on Calum Ritchie. Not a hot take, not a dark horse, no. You'll probably see Ritchie mocked to us half a dozen times before draft day if you haven't already. But for good reason!

Ritchie is a tantalizing center prospect that has many of the tools needed in order to make it work at the next level. He make the most of his hockey IQ with great playmaking ability and mesmerizing stickwork. He's got a knack for quickly analyzing the ice and where everyone is before mailing the puck to wingers who make use of empty space. What I absolutely love about him is that he's a possession machine. Too often I've watched Wild players over the years get mobbed and knocked off the puck - that's not a problem with Ritchie. Calum Ritchie is fantastic on the boards and makes defenders fight tooth and nail in every puck battle. 

He's definitely a pass-first sort of cat. If you want to get the most out of what Ritchie brings to the table, he needs to be paired with wingers who can make things happen with all that opening space. Good thing Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov play in Minnesota, right?

All in all, Ritchie is a great player with massive upside that I think the Wild need to take a look at. Marco Rossi's on the proverbial thin ice at this point...while I don't think the Wild are looking to give up on him, I think it's safe to say his development hasn't gone in the direction that Guerin and company expected. I don't want to be scrambling next year to find a center prospect to fill his hole in the prospect pool - let's get ahead of it and get one of these guys that the Wild have a shot at in this draft. Calum Ritchie would be great, Sam Honzek could be good too. If Rossi manages to pan out, well.

That'd be a good problem to have, wouldn't it?

53rd overall: Hunter Brzuestewicz - RHD - Kitchener Rangers / OHL

With Matt Dumba's impending departure, Calen Addison's fallen star, and the complete failure of the John Klingberg experiment, I don't need much convincing to look Hunter Brzuestewicz's way in this year's draft.

This kid possesses some of the slickest, most deceptive puck moving ability on the blue line in this class. He plays a silky possession game that allows him to keep opponents off-balance and reactionary.

He's got the hands. It's just a matter of if he can round out the rest of his game at the NHL level. He doesn't always make the best pass, despite his killer transitionary game, and he's not without some warts on defense. But thankfully for the Wild, we wouldn't need him to be perfect. With the embarrassment of riches the Wild have at defense in the prospect pool, it'd be a-ok if this kid just turns out to be a third pairing dude who adds some tempo to a powerplay unit. 

63rd overall: Noah Dower Nilsson - LW - Frölunda HC J20 / J20 Nationell

At this point in the draft, it's easy to project the Wild having a chance at drafting a number of boom-or-bust type prospects. Noah Dower Nilsson is one of those.

He's an impressive play-driver who comes up with creative ways to get pucks to teammates with regularity. You'll watch him play and marvel at the way he puts together chances, seemingly with nothing to work with - his shot ain't bad either. He's a skilled playmaker that could do some damage if he's paired with a sniper elsewhere on his line.

But, his game is rough around the edges. He's more instinctual than he is intelligent. That means you'll have to put up with some errant passes to nobody (or a hidden defender) to also get his dazzling set-ups. He's unimpressive defensively. And his skating is frustratingly elementary. 

He'll need to improve on those things if he wants to move the needle at the NHL level. But if he does? I see a world where he could be a second-line winger.

117th overall: Yegor Sidorov - LW - Saskatoon Blades / WHL

I know, I know. He's an overager. But hey, Yegor here has done exactly what you want to see from a guy who was not quite there just a year ago. 

He's developed marvelously, becoming a toolsy player in the offensive zone. A guy who can stickhandle with the best of them, and can pair those mitts with a hard shot. 

As for everything else, he's a work in progress. He's deferential to a fault - you'll find yourself screaming at the TV for him to just shoot the damn puck. The hockey IQ isn't there yet. He pulls open opportunities in the defense but doesn't always take full advantage of them. His skating needs work, as does his play on the defensive side of the puck.

But, I think there's real potential there. Get him in the prospect pool and let him marinate, develop, etc. and he may very well end up being a steal. 

149th overall: Philippe Blais-Savoie - LHD - Colorado College / NCAA

You could probably say that this choice is, in some way, the counterbalance weight to the Brzuestewicz pick earlier. Where Brzuestewicz is a puck-moving, offense-first defender, Philippe Blais-Savoie plays a more straightforward shutdown role. 

I think I have a soft spot for these types of players come draft day. They're undervalued, and that means you can take those kinds of players later in the draft and still end up with someone who's a vital cog in the proverbial machine. Blais-Savoie has everything you want in a defender in his own zone. He's got a stellar stick the break up plays, plays heavy and disruptive on the boards, and it's clear he's always thinking  ahead. He even flashes some skill when he's got the puck, too.

Yet, he's woefully unproductive offensively. He's not consistently able to shift around and keep defenders on their toes, and he's not a quick skater either. 

But I think it's there. He's got a second pairing ceiling if you ask me, if he puts together a more well-rounded offensive game, but even if he doesn't I could see him being a good bottom pair guy that could worm his way into the penalty kill. 

213th overall: Rudy Guimond - G - Yale / NCAA

Rudy Guimond is my goalie pick this time around. He's a big, raw, french-canadian who's put up some solid numbers so far at prep school. 

He's not a very technically sound goaltender yet. He relies heavily on his size at this juncture, and if he wants to succeed at the next level he's going to need to clean up his skating ability. If he can do that, I think he's got a real chance at getting to the NHL. 

I'm not married to Guimond. Where goalies fall in the draft is challenging to predict, and there's a number of netminders that I would also enjoy having as insurance against the seemingly inevitable Gus/Wallstedt era.