Minnesota Wild: Iowa Wild winger Colton Beck signs first NHL contract

The Minnesota Wild have been active on the contractual front, signing current Iowa Wild winger Colton Beck to a two-year, two-way contract today.

Colton Beck was captain with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in his final season, after four years. Since then, he spent time with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL before settling in with the Iowa Wild, where he has now seen ice-time across the four past seasons.

He doesn’t dominate offensive play, producing a steady twenty to thirty points per season in the AHL. Colton Beck represents a signing that is highly unlikely to ever see ice-time with the Minnesota Wild, unless of course they lose several players at once to illness or injury.

His signing appears to simply be a case of shoring up some older depth on the Iowa Wild roster, rather than a move that will impact the Minnesota Wild team itself.

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Obviously, by signing a two-way deal, as reported on the NHL website, there is always the option to promote the player but I don’t really envisage a day that Colton Beck gets ice-time in the NHL.

Indeed, he was among the first group of players that were re-assigned from the Minnesota Wild to the Iowa Wild as a result of training camp cuts.

This is purely a depth move, but given he obviously showed enough leadership potential at college level, you have to think that he brings something to the room.

The younger players with the Iowa Wild need leadership from the senior guys in the room and maybe Colton Beck represents those guys.

Maybe he’s one of those guys that does everything right, just doesn’t quite match up the skill level to the efforts in terms of an NHL call-up.

All in all, the move is rather uninspiring. Sure, it gives the younger guys and other players out there some hope that if they work hard, they can graduate the ECHL and make a name in the AHL, but realistically player likes Colton Beck have reached their ceiling there.

Maybe I end up eating my hat and the Minnesota Wild give him some time in the sun; stranger things have happened. But right not, I think this signing is little more than an AHL signing.