Wild prospect pipeline ranked 10th by Hockey Prospecting ahead of 2024 NHL Draft

The Minnesota Wild's future is bright.

According to Hockey Prospecting's prospect pool rankings posted on Friday, the Wild have the 10th best prospect pool in the NHL ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft — which will take place on June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Utah, San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils were ranked one through nine, respectively, ahead of the Wild.

Byron Bader, the creator of Hockey-Prospecting, has Brock Faber, Danila Yurov, Liam Ohgren, Riley Heidt and Marat Khusnutdinov as the Wild's top five skater prospects in his rankings.

Despite Faber playing all 82 games in his rookie season, he's still considered a prospect in Bader's rankings because the former Gophers standout hasn't yet reached 100 NHL games.

“Faber, who the model was never high on, appears on his way to becoming a star and Minnesota’s number 1 dman so that’s a big, partially unexpected, win for them” Bader wrote, adding that the Wild's system has “some decent depth.”

Faber, who is a Calder Trophy finalist, is coming off an unbelievable rookie season, where he had 47 points while averaging 24:58 of ice time. Faber, 21, was the Wild's No. 1 defenseman, faced top competition on a nightly basis and played both power play and penalty kill.

Danila Yurov, 20, scored 21 goals and 49 points in the regular season this year before recording nine points in 23 games in the playoffs en route to winning a KHL championship last week.

Liam Ohgren, who saw his season delayed due to injury, had a strong second half in the SHL this season with 12 goals and 19 points in 26 games. The 20-year-old came to North America after his team, Farjestad, unexpectedly got swept in the first round of playoffs by ninth-seed Rogle. Ohgren made a strong first impression in a four-game late-season audition with the Wild. 

Riley Heidt is having an incredible year with the Prince George Cougars in the WHL. The 19-year-old center finished second on his team and third in WHL regular-season scoring with 37 goals and 117 points, and Heidt has 15 assists and 18 points in 14 playoff games so far.

Marat Khusnutdinov, 21, recorded 20 points in 55 KHL games this season between SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi before coming to North America, where he played 16 games in a late-season stint with the Wild.

The Wild's prospect pool ranked 11th in The Athletic's rankings in January. 

Barring a trade, the Wild will draft twice in the first three rounds this summer with a first and second round selection. The Wild traded their third-round pick to the Washington Capitals for Marcus Johansson on Feb. 28, 2023.

In case you missed it last summer, we ranked the Wild's top 15 prospects in a three-part series here at The Hockey News. You can read part one here, part two here and the final part here. We will do the same series again this summer after the NHL draft.

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