The Young and Wild: McBain rolling, Hentges patrolling

Every week we will take a look around the Minnesota Wild prospect pool and see what players have had an impressive streak of games. It might be three, it might be five, it might just be one. Let’s look at The Young and Wild.

With the World Juniors canceled last week, a pile of opportunities to watch Wild prospects were washed away and all we were left with was some scattering of junior hockey, the AHL dudes, and, of course, the prospects in the NCAA.

Luckily, some of them completely dominated their holiday break for us.

Jack McBain

One of the lesser known prospects in the Wild system has been Jack McBain, but since becoming an older collegiate player for Boston College, he has not been able to stop producing. The 21-year-old came back from a temporary absence last week and just completely rolled through opponents.

Sometimes, he was doing it literally.

Through two games last week, McBain scored four goals to add to his season total which now stands at 13 goals and 24 points in just 18 games. This will be his final year in the NCAA before (hopefully) signing a professional contract with Minnesota. So the 2018 third-round pick is doing all the right things already for a big-bodied center.

Marco Rossi (duh)

This one is obvious, but Marco Rossi did enough last week to earn his well-deserved call-up to the NHL. He scored three goals and earned two assists in three games for the AHL Wild. One of those goals was the overtime game-winning penalty shot that made us all collectively drop our jaws.

We just started this prospect report for the year and Rossi and Boldy have already graduated. It’s kind of a good thing since they would no doubt be hogging up all the space and there would be none left for the younger guys. Thanks Marco and Matt.

Sam Hentges

Another NCAA center is on the list this week for his goalscoring, as St. Cloud center Sam Hentges managed to score three goals and added an assist in two games.

Joining Hentges on the Huskies is defenseman Jack Peart, and although he didn’t do much last week since he was at the World Juniors, for a rookie blueliner to have 11 points in 13 games in the NCAA, is kind of insane. Points aren’t everything, but with his mobility that he has put on display in the past, the 2021 second-rounder is doing more than enough to get us hyped for the next wave of Wild prospects.