The Minnesota Wild's AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, finished sixth out of seven teams in the Central Division this season with a 27-37-8 record. As a result, Iowa missed the playoffs after losing in the first round a year ago.
Despite not qualifying for the postseason and winning just 27 games — which is the team's lowest win total in a full 72-game season since 2015-16 — Iowa General Manager and Minnesota Wild Director of Hockey Operations Mike Murray saw his club grow from the beginning to the end of the season.
“There was obviously a lot of adversity this season from top to bottom in the organization,” Murray said in a conversation with The Hockey News. “But the success of the season, or the evaluation of the season, isn't necessarily measured in wins and losses.
“You look at where we started in training camp here and then in Iowa in October to where we are now, you know, pretty much since the trade deadline we've been playing our best hockey there as a team. And then the individuals within the team there really saw a lot of growth really top to bottom of the lineup.
“So, again, would we have liked to have won more games? Yes. But you kind of look at the bigger picture of where we came as a team, and individually during the course of the season, we did see a lot of progress there.”
And, in Iowa's defense, it faced numerous obstacles this season, and none were more notable than the abnormal number of recalls to Minnesota due to injuries.
Sammy Walker (45), Nic Petan (40) and Steven Fogarty (37) finished the season as Iowa’s top point getters, while Beckman (19), Fogarty (18) and Walker (14) were the top three goal scorers.
Wild top goalie prospect Jesper Wallstedt, who head coach Brett McLean said was their “best player all season,” had another strong season — earning 22 of Iowa's 27 wins and finishing with a .910 save percentage. And while Wallstedt, 21, had a solid start and end to his season, he did have to overcome some challenges in the middle of the year.
“He's such a competitor,” Murray said of Wallstedt. “He himself went through like the team a lot of ups and downs this year, which is good. We wanted it to be hard for him, for him to learn how to overcome things because inevitably when times get hard for him again in the future, he'll have the tools to overcome that (like) he's learned this season.”
Caedan Bankier and Michael Milne, both 21, were productive in the second half of the season after starting the year injured. Bankier, who made his season debut on Dec. 9, scored 13 goals and 23 points in 51 games. Milne, who made his season debut on Jan. 12, recorded eight goals and 21 points in 40 games.
“Certainly an unfortunate start to the season (for) both of them missing a significant amount of time to start the season and then it's hard playing catch up like they did, especially Bankier being a first-year pro,” Murray said of the duo.
“But you can tell as the season progressed, they became very important pieces to the group in Iowa. And where they're finishing off this year — we're very excited for them to hopefully pick up on that at the start of next year and continue to build.”
Daemon Hunt, Iowa's top defenseman, finished the season with 26 assists and 29 points in 51 games and played 12 games with Minnesota.
“His development path — he had an excellent rookie year; Second year, he got some exposure to the NHL and tasted some success here at the NHL level (and) handled the ups and downs extremely well,” Murray said of Hunt, 21.
“And when he was in Iowa, he was our best defenseman night in and night out. So, again, he is on a very positive path in where his career is trending. And again, when he comes to training camp (in Minnesota) in the fall, it doesn't matter how many NHL defensemen we have under contract, come and earn a spot and take somebody else's job.”
The good news for Iowa, which hopes to get back to the postseason in the 2024-25 campaign, is that it will have even more young players on its roster with the additions of prospects Vladislav Firstov and Jack Peart — both of whom got some much-needed experience in Des Moines at the end of the season.
The Wild reassigned Firstov to AHL Iowa on April 17 after his season ended in the KHL. The 22-year-old forward had four points in 10 games with Iowa.
“He's definitely a much more mature player than when he left us at the start of two seasons ago,” Murray said of Firstov. “There's certainly a very high-end skill element to his game that he can make things happen offensively. And it's just been more (about) continuing to work (with him) on being a more complete player at both ends of the ice — so that we can trust him in situations to get him more opportunity to have an offensive impact in the game.”
Peart signed a three-year entry level contract with the Wild in late March after his college season with the St. Cloud State Huskies ended. He then signed an amateur try-out agreement with Iowa on March 26 for the rest of its season. The 20-year-old blueliner had two points in 10 games and gained valuable experience ahead of next fall.
“Coming in at the end of the season after his college season (was) invaluable for him to get this experience to set him up for this summer to know what he's stepping into next year,” Murray said of Peart. “And he's really a great two-way puck moving defenseman. He's great at pushing the puck north when he gets it and because of his skating ability, he can defend well. ... What he's learned in the month or so he's been there will set him up, and we're very excited to have him full time next year.”
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