The Minnesota Wild have not just been busy on the ice, but their front office has been aggressive at signing college free agents now that the NCAA Division I season is winding down. College free agents offer the advantage of being more physically developed than their counterparts coming out of major junior as well as the maturity that comes from living independently. The Wild have had reasonable success from signing undrafted college free agents over the years with notable luminaries as Nate Prosser, Justin Fontaine, and Christian Folin. Sure there have been some whiffs like Casey Wellman, but at least the Wild have not neglected this pipeline of talent to augment from the pool of players it selects via the entry draft.
The Wild signed a trio of free agents in the last few days in University of New Hampshire forward Grayson Downing, Minnesota State defenseman Zach Palmquist and Vermont goaltender Brody Hoffman. All three of the free agents have signed entry-level contracts that start in the fall of 2015. That means they will not be playing with the Minnesota or the Iowa Wild this season. Iowa, at the very bottom of the AHL standings will not be qualifying for the post season for a second year in a row. While the Minnesota did not demand an inordinate amount of call ups, injuries with Iowa forced the team to add a lot of ECHL’ers (from the Quad City Mallards and Alaska Aces) via Professional Try Out contracts. I think it only makes sense they’d want to have more depth to draw from and with many of its draftees still seasoning in college (Alex Tuch, Adam Gilmour, Mario Lucia, Avery Peterson, Louie Belpedio and Carson Soucy) they added a few more players they felt could be at least AHL-ready right away. Here’s a Belpedio clip you’ll want to see from his time in the NCAA tournament.
Grayson Downing is a 22-year old left-hand shooting center from Abbotsford, British Columbia. Downing possesses good speed and is a decent finisher in and around the net. Even from his freshman season with the Wildcats, Downing was pretty consistent producer for New Hampshire throughout his 4-year college career. He anchored the Wildcats’ top line all season long.
Zach Palmquist is a defenseman I’ve been watching for some time going back to his high school days starring for the South St. Paul. Palmquist is a left-hand shooting defenseman who can dangle and dance along the blueline to find a good shooting lane to unleash his quick wrist shot. The 24-year old made steady improvements to his game throughout his four years at Minnesota State.
If we’ve learned anything the last two seasons, is the importance of quality goaltending and just how injuries at that position can compound rather quickly. Josh Harding, Niklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, John Curry, Ilya Bryzgalov and Devan Dubnyk have all seen time between the pipes for the Wild the last two seasons. Harding’s struggles with Multiple Sclerosis forced the team to give Kuemper a one-way deal and this has also made for a lot of changes at goaltender for Iowa as well. Johan Gustafsson has struggled and the team has given AHL veteran John Curry the lion’s share of the starts. They’d like to have a young goaltender to anchor their team. It is interesting that the team has not come to terms with Stephen Michalek who has been excellent for the Harvard Crimson this season. So the team agreed to terms with Brody Hoffman who split time with Vermont as a junior this season. Hoffman brings prototypical NHL goalie size with a 6’4″, 195lbs and catches left where he had a 13-6-2 record this season.
It will be interesting to see if the Wild make anymore free agent signings as major junior teams are eliminated in their respective league playoffs. The Wild signed a bunch of undrafted junior players last year in Brady Brassart, Guillaume Gelinas and Zack Mitchell to mixed results. The fact the Wild signed multiple college free agents may be a reflection of this major junior group’s inability to really be able to perform well enough at the AHL level. Only Mitchell has managed to be a somewhat regular offensive producer out of that group. Hopefully this new group of players are able to help make Iowa into a team that be a playoff qualifier again.
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