Draft Week Arrives as Wilderness Seek Top Talent
NAHL Minnesota Wilderness

Draft Week Arrives as Wilderness Seek Top Talent

Published on June 9, 2026 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release


The Minnesota Wilderness this week will have two opportunities to add to its list of protected players for the 2026-27 season.

The North American Hockey League is hosting two drafts - the first will be a futures draft Tuesday, June 9, followed by the league's annual entry draft on Wednesday, June 10.

For the Futures draft, all league squads will select two players. According to the NAHL website, this draft is designed to give players "early exposure to junior hockey and support their path to NCAA hockey through the NAHL's proven development model."

Teams will select players born in 2010 over two rounds, with each team selecting one player per round.

Additional information on the Futures Draft can be found at NAHL Futures Draft.

The entry draft is available to all players born between 2006 and 2010. Teams can select players who are not tendered to another NAHL team.

The Wilderness are currently slated to make selections in rounds 1, 2, 6, and 8-15, although will only pick until they reach a combined total of 30 drafted and protected players. A team's protected list is made up of newly tendered players along with those who did not age out from the 2025-26 season and are expected to rejoin the squad this season. Barring a trade to move up, Minnesota's first round selection will be the 31st overall pick.

Drafted individuals contributed greatly to Minnesota's success during last season's run which sent the squad to its second appearance in the Robertson Cup Finals. Forwards Talan Blanck (selected in the 1st round, 16th overall in the 2025 draft) and Noah Dziver (selected in the 8th round, 262nd overall in the 2024 draft) set numerous new franchise regular season and playoff records. Both also secured NCAA Division 1 commitments, with Dziver heading to Lindenwood University and Blanck going to the University of Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, goaltender Ryan Gerlich also re-wrote several team netminding records for the regular and post-season in his first campaign in the NAHL after being drafted by Minnesota in the 7th round, 219th overall in the '25 draft. Forward Caleb Kim was selected as a rookie in the 9th round, 297th overall in the '24 draft, and completed his second season in 2025-26 as the Wilderness' 4th leading goal scorer during the regular season.

Cayden Neice was also drafted in 2025. The defenseman was selected in the 10th round, 321st overall and showed gradual improvement in his rookie junior campaign. Neice skated in 28 games and posted seven (2 goals/5 assists) of his nine points in his final 13 contests.

The futures draft is set for 1 p.m. CST on Tuesday, with the entry draft at 1 p.m. CST on Wednesday.

View the selections in both drafts live on NAHLTV. Follow the futures draft at NAHLFuturesDraft.com and the entry draft at NAHLDraft.com.

Check out the Minnesota Wilderness Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



North American Hockey League Stories from June 9, 2026


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central