Ryder Ritchie Could Form the Wild's Next Dynamic Duo

Everyone loves the classic combos: peanut butter and jelly, ketchup and mustard, Mats Zuccarrello and Kirill Kaprizov. What about Ryder Ritchie and <insert star forward’s name here>? 

The potential to become the perfect complement to a star forward in the NHL is what makes Ritchie, a second-round selection from 2024, the Minnesota Wild’s seventh-best prospect according to the recent Hockey Wilderness writers poll. 

I had Ritchie fifth on my ballot because his offensive instincts and ability to make plays that create space with quick touches and intelligent reads are high-level for a forward who just turned 19 earlier this month. 

The Calgary native played a key role in the WHL this season on a dominant Medicine Hat Tigers team. He bounced between the top two lines and finished third on the team in scoring, with 29 goals and 32 assists in 53 regular-season games. The right wing also produced 9 goals and 9 assists in 18 playoff games during Medicine Hat’s run to a WHL playoff championship. He then had a stellar 4 goal, 1 assist performance in the CHL’s Memorial Cup, where Medicine Hat lost in the final.

Ritchie was often used as a sparkplug in the top six, switching lines to help jump-start the offense. In multiple games that I watched, he played primarily on the second line, but Medicine Hat also gave him significant ice time on the top line with Gavin McKenna. By the time the Memorial Cup rolled around, Ritchie was a fixture on the top line. 

He seems like the type of player that will mesh well with intelligent, offensively minded teammates because they’ll have the instincts to go to small-area spaces where Ritchie tends to look for with his puck touches, especially when down low. 

Ritchie has excellent instincts without the puck, which he uses to read the play and get to the right spot at the right time. He’s a smooth, controlled skater and manages his pace well when forechecking as part of a cycle, which means that he can observe the play and move with it to find and establish space. 

As a result, when Ritchie gets the puck, he often has an idea of what he wants to do with it. He makes a lot of quick, high-awareness plays with the puck, especially in tight, and understands when to hold onto it until a teammate can get into space. Ritchie has quick, soft hands and handles the puck with intention, meaning he wants to make a play the instant it becomes available. 

All of the clips above are from the same game, and it didn’t take long to find enough of them to make a highlight package. I was confident that that would be the case, because every time I’ve watched Ritchie play, on video and in person, he does the same thing. 

Sometimes, when he makes short passes to open space, he puts it in guys’ feet or handcuffs them a bit. Still, I think this will be less of an issue in professional hockey, with more talented teammates who are ready to receive passes and able to handle them from multiple angles. 

Ritchie also has a strong shot, quick release, and good scoring touch. He probably won’t be a big point producer in the NHL, but he’s diverse enough offensively to become a valuable offensive contributor. I expect he’ll be able to beat NHL goalies from mid-range, especially if he can establish a reputation as a playmaking threat. 

One big question with Ritchie is whether he has enough speed to be a top-six winger. As a skater, he’s smooth but not powerful, and maneuvers well but isn’t quick or explosive. Ritchie relies on his size a lot at the junior level, but I wonder if he’ll be able to do that to the same degree in pro hockey if he isn’t able to win enough puck races. 

Defensively, Ritchie can be guilty of puck watching and floating out of position at times in his own zone, which leads to him scrambling to get to his spot and putting teammates in a bad position. 

It’s not for lack of caring, though; he has a defensive conscience and doesn’t often cheat for offense. Ritchie must learn to apply his strong awareness more on the defensive side of the puck as well. However, smart players tend to figure that out over time, and Ritchie is a smart player. 

That said, he’s probably not going to be a penalty killer in pro hockey. He didn’t even kill penalties in juniors, where top players often get shorthanded minutes.

It’s conceivable that Ritchie can become a competent puck-mover and playmaker in an NHL top-six, a player who can process the game quickly enough to develop chemistry with top offensive players. He could become a 25-goal, 60-point guy if he continues to evolve offensively and develops a bit more power in his straight-line and lateral movements. Regardless, I think that becoming a consistent 50-point scorer is a reasonable expectation, even if Ritchie ultimately slots in as more of a middle-six player. 

He elected to make the move to college hockey this season and will head east to Boston University, where he is expected to be one of the team’s top forwards. Look for Ritchie to play on a scoring line centered by Chicago Blackhawks prospect Sacha Boisvert, who transferred to BU after leading North Dakota in scoring as a freshman. 

Ritchie is also on the list of players being considered for Canada’s World Junior Championship roster this winter. Still, he’s probably a long shot to make a team that could have as many as 30 first-round picks to choose from. 

The Wild will most likely prefer him to spend two seasons in the NCAA before they sign him, which would result in him joining the organization for the 2027-28 season. Until then, it should be fun to watch him grow his game. Perhaps by the time he arrives, we’ll be looking at a player with the potential to mix perfectly with one of the Wild’s star forwards, and fans will get to enjoy a combo that’s as natural as peas and carrots.