In the eleventh round of the NAHL draft, the Wild drafted Andover’s Chase Perry.  Two other goalies were drafted.  One, Gustaf Johansson, a Swedish goalie played 26 games (12-10-2) for Kenai River last season.  The second, Holden Kurtz played for the North Dakota’s Devil Lake High School.  The Wild current plans are to keep two goalies.

The Wenatchee coaching staff likes Perry and he is a strong candidate to be in the nets.  Perry recently tried out and made the 2013 Team Northwest team that will play in the Minnesota Elite High School league this fall.  YHH has watched Perry since his peewee A days at Andover.  Perry has consistently played a strong game in the nets.  He played 70 games in the nets for Andover High School, compiling a 32-27-4 record in the last three seasons.  He will be a high school senior in the 2013-2014 season.

Most NAHL teams will roster 7-8 defense men.  The eighth defense is often a player that can skate forward as well as play defense.  The Wild drafted five defense men in the June draft.  Two will not join the Wild (Matt Nelson/Edina and Janik Moser/Heilbronn Germany are playing elsewhere).  The three remaining are all large.  Cody Longie (6’ 200lbs) is an interesting defense man drafted out of Bottineau High School in North Dakota.  Longie was the #3 leading scorer last season in the state posting 63 points (26 goals) while playing defense.  Joining Longie are two more six footers; Alex Bontje and Sam Krakauer.

Bontje played three seasons for the Newmarket team in the Ontario Junior A Hockey League.  Krakauer played last season for the Colorado Rampage, three of those games were played in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League.  One of the elite games Krauer played had Chase Perry in the nets and Matt Colford at center.  Perry is a potential Wild teammate.  Colford in a potential center for the Minnesota Magicians.

This season, the Wild is planning to go with 13-14 forwards and it shows.  They drafted eleven forwards.  The Wild positioned themselves before the draft to have the top picks in the last four draft rounds.  It was a gamble.  The fate in NAHL drafts is such that a number of a team’s picks are likely to play elsewhere.  Shortening a team’s prospects list and going big in the draft can result in losing players throughout the summer to college or USHL.

The Wild used their #1 pick (and #5 overall) to draft Parker Toumie out of Heilbronn Germany.  Toumie is in the final 32 players being looked at by the Wild and likely to make the team.  A great playmaker, Toumie scored 235 points (89 goals) in a 140 games over the last four seasons playing in Germany.  He was a great start in their draft.

But the Wild’s fourth round pick and second forward selected, Dominick Sacco, opted to play USHL hockey this season.  Another forward, Bemidji’s Matt Sattore, is playing Canadian Juniors this season and passed on the Wild.  Wild draftee Luke McColgan out of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League opted to play for Fargo in the USHL.

The Wild used their fifth round pick (#143 overall) to draft Mike Coyne, a 29 point/15 goal scorer for the Buffalo Sabres U18 team last season.  He is a candidate to make the team.   Another player is Nick Anderson who played for Stillwater last season.  Anderson played 71 games in three seasons for the Ponies scoring 48 points (21 goals) and is in the mix to make the Wild.  Anderson was drafted when the Wild had the table all to themselves.

In all, the Wild have lost only four of the eleven forwards drafted.  Six forwards were drafted when Wenatchee had the draft table by themselves; four of those six are still in the running to make the team.  The gamble may have paid off-the 2012-2013 season will tell the final story.

The Minnesota teams will play Wenatchee only once-at the Showcase in mid-September.  After that, the Wild will not return to Minnesota until playoff time.  Coach Littler would rather play the Minnesota teams.  The Wild will play two Midwest rivals, Fairbanks and Kenai River (25 times), but will not play the other three teams (Coulee Region Chill, the Magicians or the Wilderness) once the NAHL showcase is over.

After the showcase, the Wenatchee team will be flying over Minnesota to play Johnston, the Soo Eagles out of Sault St. Marie MI, the Michigan Warriors out of Flint MI, and the Port Huron Falcons; or they will be stopping short to play Bismarck, Aberdeen, and Minot.  It is a frustration for the Wild staff since the Wild have to pay travel costs for the teams scheduled to play at Wenatchee (potentially a $25,000 bill for each team they entertain) as well as their own travel costs.

Two weekends ago, the Wild held tryouts at the Dakotah Arena in Prior Lake and added a few players to their potential roster.  The Wild have their roster down to 32 players and will be spending the rest of this month paring the team down to 25 players by September 1.  Generally, high school players in the final 32 will get a strong look.  The Wild is sensitive to player’s costs in the tryout and usually do not invite a player to August sessions without leaning to their being placed on the team.

Wenatchee’s home arena is the Toyota Town Center Arena (a first class arena built in 2008 that has a 4400 seating capacity for hockey games).  It is a nice facility located on the west bank of the Columbia River as it rolls out of the Cascade Mountains and heads south before turning west to the Pacific.

Coach Littler’s team last year came up one game short of winning the Robertson Cup awarded to the top Tier II team in the USA.  Wenatchee has been #1 or #2 in the now defunct West Division for the past four seasons, battling Fairbanks for the top spot.  They will battle Fairbanks again this year.  The Wild staff is optimistic about repeating last season despite having to re-build.  With Wenatchee consistently winning over the past few years, their optimism has to be respected.

As for Wenatchee, the city, it sits on the junction of the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers and as Woody Guthrie sang, “Roll on, Columbia, roll on!  Your power is turning our darkness to dawn.  Roll on, Columbia, roll on.”  It is the Washington State Song.