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  • Mikey Milne Could Be the Wild's Newest Piranha


    Image courtesy of Photo credit: @IAWild on X
    Tony Abbott

    The Minnesota Wild's "Not Weird. Wild" ad campaign is getting a lot of love, but for my money, no local sports ad in history can compare with putting Nick Punto in an aquarium, which the Minnesota Twins did back in 2006.

    That was back in the "Little Piranhas" days of the Minnesota Twins. They supplemented their two big superstars, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, with several singles-hitter-types in Punto, Jason Tyner, Jason Bartlett, and Luis Castillo. Despite having no offensive rep to speak of, all they did was push an already-crazy Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen over the edge.

    "All those little piranhas -- blooper here, blooper here, beat out a ground ball, they're up by four," he ranted in August 2006. "They get up by four with that bullpen? See you at the national anthem before tomorrow. ... People worry about the catcher, what's his name, Mauer? Fine, yeah, a good hitter, but worry about the little [piranhas], they're on base all the time."

    The Iowa Wild has given the NHL club their fair share of Little Piranhas over the last several seasons. No coach was game-planning against the Wild, wondering how to stop Brandon Duhaime (19 goals in 193 Wild games), Connor Dewar (19 goals in 190 Wild games), or Mason Shaw (eight goals in 82 games). Still, all three were positive contributors that would chip in with a timely hit, a badly needed clear on the penalty kill, or even the not-so-odd shorthanded goal.

    These guys were cheap, homegrown gamers. And when Minnesota shipped out their "Deweys" at the deadline and let Shaw hop across the border to Winnipeg in the offseason, there was a new vacancy open in Minnesota: Piranha Wanted.

    About a month into the season, it looks like Mikey Milne will get his opportunity to fill that role. 

    Passed over in the 2021 Draft, Minnesota scooped Milne up at No. 89 overall in 2022, making him a late-third-rounder. The Wild had gotten their injection of skilled forwards in Liam Öhgren (No. 19), Danila Yurov (No. 24), and Hunter Haight (No. 47) and changed gears by grabbing a player whose main sell was "This kid's a freaking gamer."

    A typical (and abridged) scouting report of Milne from Elite Prospects' Mitchell Brown in December 2021 read:

    Milne is Milne. He's the driving force of the [WHL's Winnipeg] Ice. He's always attacking the inside lane, whether that's after a crafty retrieval, battle win, or forecheck steal. Took a puck off the boards and drove inside for a scoring chance. Now consistently hitting teammates in scoring position. His pace, physicality, and scanning habits ensure that he'll create for teammates at the next level.

    He scored 38 goals and 81 points in Winnipeg that season, and then he went to the pro level. Three years later, he's establishing himself as a key engine of the Baby Wild's lineup. 

    Milne turned 22 in September and is second on the Iowa Wild in goals (four) and points (eight). He also ranks fifth on the team in shots (27). For want of a better on-ice measurement than what the AHL provides, Milne is one of three players who have played more than three games in Des Moines with a positive plus/minus. 

    "He's easily been Iowa's best player so far this year," glows Ben Gislason, the Baby Wild's play-by-play announcer. "Huge motor, plays the game with fire, too. Great skater and was hugely mentored by Shaw when they were here together."

    Shaw was notable for connecting with his young teammates, assuming a leadership role despite his young age. Their former captain may be gone, but the youngsters in Des Moines have carried on the close-knit locker room. Milne and Carson Lambos, for example, are teammates twice-over as partners in an intense EA NHL rivalry against Caeden Bankier and Kyle Masters.

    And Bankier, another potential Piranha-like forward in the Wild's system, is perhaps Milne's closest companion in Iowa. They're road roommates, and the two have caught the attention of the people of Des Moines... though, not always on the ice.

    "Last year, when moving into his apartment, he and Bankier were taking his mattress in the back of a pickup to his new place," recalls Gislason. "It flew out in the middle of rush hour on one of the busiest roads in Des Moines and caused a huge backup as they scrambled out to get it back in the truck."

    While coach Brett McLean might want to stress the fundamentals of properly securing cargo in pickup, Milne doesn't seem to be having problems with the details at the rink. He ended last season on a hot streak and has managed to carry it over into 2024-25. The AHL is a development league, and teams are looking for an upward trajectory from their young players. They've got that in Milne. In his first 85 games in Iowa, he scored seven goals and only 17 points.

    Over his last 22 games? He's the proud owner of nine goals and 20 points. He has multi-point outings in seven of them.

    John Hynes has taken notice.

    "From the start of the season, he’s been the most consistent player that’s been down there," he told The Athletic, explaining why Minnesota recalled Milne over Öhgren. "Fast. Plays hard. He’s producing down there. He’s been consistently the top forward there."

    In short? The kid's a little piranha, straight out of a prospect pool that always seems to be hiding some of those players under their big fish. Soon, we should see whether he can bring the same bite to the lineup as the Deweys and Shaw did in seasons past.

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    Looked like Hynes decided 1 point was enough. You never, ever, play Johansson in OT. He has speed, but lacks the ability to do anything special with it. I think opposing teams score around 50% of the shifts he plays in OT.

    I'm not even saying he made a major mistake on the shift, but nobody was paying him any attention because he's a non-threat; they converged on the puck and took it the other way. I don't know how you look at the Wild bench and think that Johansson is the best option against the best players on the other team. Khusnutdinov would be a far better choice, in my eyes, and that's after the much more conventional Zuccarello, Hartman, Rossi, or Boldy...

    JEE and Kaprizov already had their shift or they would clearly be ahead as well.

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    Honestly, I'm not sure Ohgren wouldn't be a better option for OT than Johansson. Of course, I only say that because Ohgren had a hat trick for the Iowa Wild last night, but he will develop into a solid 2-way player, which is something the Minnesota Wild will never have in NoJo.

    Edited by Imyourhuckleberry
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    Sorry, but Ohgren doesn't even have speed right now.  Unless playing a week in Iowa shakes him to the point where he suddenly grows 3-4 inches, gets 2-3 mph faster, and shoots the puck like a Bedard or something, I'd rather see what Milne has first.

    Why even call him up as a warm body to sit in a chair?

    Edited by Citizen Strife
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    17 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

    I'd rather see what Milne has first.

    Why even call him up as a warm body to sit in a chair?

    I believe they like to have someone available at F and D while on road trips in case someone else wakes up not feeling good, and Milne had been playing the best of the Iowa Wild players.

    Travis Boyd is leading the Iowa Wild in points, has scored at a double-digit goal pace each of the last 3 NHL seasons, and has a slightly smaller contract, so if they did just want someone to sit in the press box, he seems like just as good of an option. Then again, I think Boyd probably needs to clear waivers to go back and Milne would not since he's still in the final year of his ELC, so I imagine that's the reason.

    They reward the young player deemed to be playing the best with a few days of NHL warm up skating & getting a bigger check, then likely send him back to the minors.

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    17 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    Most of the Wild have been playing strong games, but not Johansson. He's hit the ice a few times and turnover after turnover from him. How long will Hynes be able to tolerate it?

    Agreed.  He was bad against Chicago.  I would think it would be frustrating to Boldy and Ek.

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    22 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

    He was bad against Chicago.  I would think it would be frustrating to Boldy and Ek.

    And yet, Hynes, beyond all reason, decided he had earned some OT minutes where teams generally only play their top 6 forwards. Honestly, would Foligno or Lauko be a worse option there?

    In my opinion, the worst 2 options Hynes could have gone with out of 12 forwards were Johansson and Trenin, but he found it within him to put one of them on the ice. I don't want to be complaining about him, but if he isn't scoring(which he rarely does), NoJo is such a weak link for his line.

    Have to find it interesting that you don't gain anything in the +/- statistic when scoring on the power play, but JEE and Boldy are both at +5 this season while Johansson is down at zero.

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    1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    Have to find it interesting that you don't gain anything in the +/- statistic when scoring on the power play, but JEE and Boldy are both at +5 this season while Johansson is down at zero.

    Excellent point.

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    49 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

    Buyout T-Bag and insert Copper Top.  (no sarcasm applied here)

    If Milne starts exceeding 1 point per game in the AHL, as Trenin did in 2019-2020(20 goals & 15 assists in 32 games), maybe they would consider it.

    Trenin was more productive than 22 year old future NHLers like Thomas Novak and Rem pitlick for that team, as well as one Frederick Gaudreau.

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    Hey Hynes, if you are listening.  Let Nojo sit in the press box for a game just to see what happens to the Ek, Boldy line if you drop Hartman or Foligno onto it.  Let Milne play up a few games.  I'm betting Ek and Boldy put up better numbers.

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    21 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I was surprised they didn't play Milne in the Chicago game. The whole team looked really tired and could have used an infusion of energy.

    Agreed. I was really hoping to see what he had as well since I never managed to watch the Iowa games.

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    14 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I was surprised they didn't play Milne in the Chicago game. The whole team looked really tired and could have used an infusion of energy.

    The podcasters lead me to believe that Milne was brought up to send a message to under-performing bottom sixers *cough* Trenin *cough* that there's hungry AHL'rs who would kill for the chance to prove to Hynzy they can play that bottom six role.

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