Young and Wild: Nick Swaney racking up points

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.

Prospects around the NHL will certainly be moved in trades the next couple of weeks, but let’s spotlight what happened with the Wild’s young guys this week.

Nick Swaney

The 24-year-old local Lakeville forward was on a little bit of a hot streak this week, as Swaney capped off his week with three goals and four points in three games down in AHL Iowa.

That included a couple of gritty tallies against the Chicago Wolves on Sunday.

Swaney now has 12 goals and 27 points in 41 AHL games — nothing to get too excited about, but he’s just another solid depth option that has seen his level rise slightly as Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar earned NHL jobs. Another gutsy winger.

Marat Khusnutdinov

We might not get to see Khusnutdinov in North American for a while after he re-upped with his KHL club, but that doesn’t stop him from absolutely boggling our minds lately.

The 19-year-old center is getting more ice time for one of the best clubs in the league and has recently earned a pair of assists in three playoff games. The two-way forward is getting the job done overseas, enough so that maybe he will become one of the premier talents in that league as he develops further. Through 32 games in the regular season, the 2020 second-round pick scored five goals and earned 12 points.