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  • Wild Prospect Ryder Ritchie Commits to Boston University

    Image courtesy of © James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    That's Wild

    We have a Minnesota Wild prospect making use of the new NCAA-CHL agreement. In the new agreement, a player doesn't have to pick either the CHL or the NCAA for their development but as long as they are not signed to an NHL contract, a CHL player can transfer to play college hockey. This causes a natural progression from junior hockey to playing against slightly older, more grown competition.

    Some top prospects like projected first-overall pick of the 2026 class, Gavin McKenna, and some top picks this year, like Porter Martone, are rumored to be making the jump to the NCAA for next season. But most recently, it is Wild prospect Ryder Ritchie that is bringing his talents down south and has committed to Boston University, according to Elite Prospects' Cam Robinson.

    The 18-year-old right winger was drafted in the second round (45th overall) by the Wild in the 2024 NHL Draft and after a trade last summer that took him from the miserable Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL, to the Medicine Hat Tigers, Ritchie saw his offense take a slight jump. He finished his season with the Tigers scoring 29 goals and 61 points in 53 games. Considering Medicine Hat was an absolute machine led by the aforementioned McKenna, Ritchie was able to seize the opportunity. He finished third on the team in scoring.

    And now he faces the challenge of college hockey, which should accelerate his development and it wouldn't surprise us if he's there for at least a couple seasons.

    • The Minnesota Wild need to be smart and cash in on the teams drooling over Sam Bennett. They have their own, slightly lesser version of Sam Bennett they could offer teams. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • Marc-Andre Fleury finished seventh for the Lady Byng. [Yahoo Sports]

    Off the trail...

    • The New York Rangers have sent Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks, officially. Full trade grades: [ESPN]
    • A game for the ages. Stuart Skinner was pulled by the Edmonton Oilers after going down 3-0 in Game 4 Thursday night. The Oilers proceeded to come back and win the game 5-4 in overtime, even after Sam Reinhart equalized the game for his Panthers with just seconds left in relegation. A roller coaster.
    By Thomas Williams  

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    mnfaninnc

    Kreider goes to Anaheim. The top thing is if Kreider would not waive his NMC to come to MN. I do think we need to be asking if Guerin was even in conversations with Drury about him, because we had the cap room. 

    Kreider is 34 and looked like he had lost some of his game last season, but was also heavily injured. Yet, still, 22 goals was a nice line 2 total and something we don't have. 

    I'm disappointed that we haven't heard of any trades thus far in this offseason, and I'm wondering if we will get much change. I do want the kids to have opportunities, but at the same time we've got to get in more goals and thin the heard on bottom 6 guys. 

    It's time for transition, not just with the younger players, but also with the top 6. It's time we don't simply look for value, but look more at performance. Perhaps Guerin wants to be younger and 34 was too old. The thing is, Kreider didn't cost much, but I think we could have gotten 2 serviceable years out of him. I also think we could have gotten 2 nice playoff performances out of him which is what we needed.

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    mnfaninnc

    mnfaninnc 4,222

    Posted (edited)

    I do kind of wish that Guerin and the front office would start pushing guys to go to college in the state, or even with Denver. I'm not sure why so many head to BC or BU. I'd rather have them closer to my FO if I were the GM. Can't a GM have input on this decision, like, what is best for their career here? 

    College kids have to pay to get to prospect camp. It would seem like it would be easier to get here from closer teams. Maybe this is irrelevant now that college athletes are getting paid more?

    Edited by mnfaninnc
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    Up North Guy
    24 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I do kind of wish that Guerin and the front office would start pushing guys to go to college in the state, or even with Denver. I'm not sure why so many head to BC or BU. I'd rather have them closer to my FO if I were the GM. Can't a GM have input on this decision, like, what is best for their career here? 

    College kids have to pay to get to prospect camp. It would seem like it would be easier to get here from closer teams. Maybe this is irrelevant now that college athletes are getting paid more?

    Wasn't BG a BU guy?

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