Wild rank as the 5th best Prospect Pool in the NHL. The Wild had two picks in the fifth round of the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft. They used their first pick on Sebastian Soini [https://www.nhl.com/player/sebastian-soini-8484861] and their second on Chase Wutzke. Soini, 18, is a 6-foot-2 defenseman who was playing with Ilves Jr. of Finland-Jr last year. Soini was ranked 17th among International skaters by the NHL Central Scouting. Ryan Kennedy with The Hockey News had Soini at 62 on his top 120 rankings [https://thehockeynews.com/news/final-2024-nhl-draft-rankings-ryan-kennedys-top-120] for the 2024 NHL Draft. "He's a smooth-skating right-shot 'D' who moves the puck well," one scout [https://thehockeynews.com/news/final-2024-nhl-draft-rankings-ryan-kennedys-top-120] said. "Good reads. It was a surprise he didn't make the World Under-18 team. I don't know why the coach didn't take him." Soini fits a lot of what the Wild need. He is a big right-shot defender who is physical. Kennedy has Soini's best case as Juuso Valimaki [https://www.nhl.com/utah/player/juuso-valimaki-8479976]. "He has good size," another scout said. "He skates well and competes well. He's not overly physical but he did compete well against men. He's physically advanced and quite strong for his age. He has the ability to play with the puck and has a big shot that he doesn't use as much as he should. Good overall package. you get a bit of everything." Lastly, they drafted Wutzke with pick 142. Wutzke is a 6-foot-2 goaltender who was playing in the WHL this year with the Red Deer Rebels. He went 19-10-2 last year with a .904 save percentage and a 2.82 goals-against-average. Wutzke was ranked as the ninth-best goalie in the draft. Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/minnesota-wild/] for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more. OTHER WILD NEWS
