Minnesota Wild prospects all over World Junior Championship rosters

With the 2022 NHL Draft and Free Agent frenzy over with, Minnesota Wild hockey fans have officially entered the longest part of the offseason, where there is usually very little to look forward to until the beginning of the next year.

Fortunately this year the COVID-delayed World Junior Championship begins on Aug. 9 and will feature an array of Wild prospects to cheer on.

The cap-strapped Wild had little room in their budget for any big signings and are more likely to coast through this offseason, perhaps acquiring a middle-six player on a deal or potentially a trade.

Looking at the roster for next year the Wild only have $2.56 million in cap space if you include Marco Rossi as a roster player. Yet what they lack in money they make up for in young talent.

Recently ranked first overall in NHL prospect pool strength by Byron Bader of Hockey Prospecting, the Minnesota Wild will have their prospects spread across many participating teams, with a range of forwards, defense and even a goalie competing for gold.

Worth noting is that the teams have been allowed to alter their rosters from the ones submitted for the cancelled tournament and even with a large number of prospects in the mix, Wild fans won’t be able to see all their prospects.

The Czechia forward Pavel Novak will be unable to participate due to health issues, and highly touted Russian prospects Marat Khusnutdinov and Danil Yurov are ineligible due to the IIHF suspending Team Russia from the tournament.

A total of nine Wild prospects have made their home Countries rosters, here is who Minnesota Wild fans should be cheering for:

(All stats collected from IIHF and Elite Prospects)

Team Canada

Carson Lambos – This 2021 first round pick at 26th overall has continued to develop into a solid prospect with the Winnipeg Ice in the WHL. After a solid season putting up 47 points in 51 games Lambos was named to the WHL (East) All-Star Team and has a chance for Team Canada’s top four. Expect to see the two-way defender play some stronger minutes than at the first attempt of the tournament; where he was only listed as the seventh D and his total play time was just over 14 minutes in the two games.

Ryan O’Rourke – Perhaps a pairing with Lambos’s in his future, the 2020 second rounder and Captain of the Soo Greyhounds, usually touted for his shutdown defense, caught on fire in the OHL playoffs and showed off his slap shot while putting up 12 points in 10 games.

O’Rourke was also named as an OHL First Team All-Star. His progress through the year should help him break into the stacked Canada defense, as he was scratched in one of the two games from the earlier canceled tournament.

Daemon Hunt – Hunt fought his way onto the new roster after having a late injury in the first tournaments camp, and while not likely to be a starter in every game, the third round draft pick provides a solid option, especially after finishing out an impressive 39 point season with Moose Jaw in the WHL.

Team USA

Brock Faber – The newly acquired Minnesota native defenseman was drafted in the second round of the 2020 Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings. The Wild procured Faber through the Kevin Fiala trade and fans should have a blast getting acquainted with the future Captain of the Gophers as he smothers the opposition into submission and makes it look easy.

Faber won Gold in the 2021 World Junior Championships where he had five points in seven games, and was relied on heavily in the game from the canceled tournament with almost 19 minutes of ice time.

Jack Peart – Another Minnesota native defenseman drafted in the second round, albeit in 2021 this time, Jack Peart is another part of the massively deep Wild defensive pool, and will have a chance to show his stuff on the World Stage.

While Peart was a second round pick he has some major NHL upside despite his smaller size; and the 2021 Mr. Hockey winner will hope to jump right back into form from the canceled tournament, where he had a point in the one game they played, with only nine minutes of ice time.

Team Czechia

David Spacek – While not as highly regarded as a lot of the other defenders in the Minnesota Wild’s stable, this late round pick had a fantastic season in the QMJHL with 50 points in 57 games, blossoming into their number one defender. Spacek will attempt to prove his worth and do the same in a higher level of competition.

Team Slovakia

Servac Petrovsky – Perhaps projected to go higher than where the Wild grabbed him in the sixth round, Petrovsky had a very solid year in the OHL with 54 points in 65 games.

The two-way center is known for having a solid defensive aspect to his game and will look to improve upon his performance in the canceled tournament where he was unable to put up any points in his two games played (Slovakia was listed at three games but one was forfeit by the other team due to COVID), and his time on ice was cut from 14 minutes in the first game, to only nine minutes in the second.