The Wilderness, out of the north, came to the cities this weekend.  No, you don’t have to check the backyard to see if the trees have moved closer; there are no Ents attacking your tower.  The Wilderness in this case is the Minnesota Wilderness and last weekend, they set up their main camp at the Bloomington Ice Garden and held their final camp before going north to put their team together for the 2013-2014.

The Wilderness is one of the two new North American Hockey League franchises playing hockey in the 2013-2014 season in Minnesota.  The other is the Minnesota Magicians playing out of Richfield.

The team originated in Spooner WI and last year moved to Cloquet.  The Wilderness played last season in the Superior International Junior Hockey League and will play out of Cloquet’s Northwoods Credit Union Ice Arena.  Next door is the Pine Valley Ice Arena or “the barn”, Cloquet’s original ice arena.  It is rumored to be torn down and replaced, but an NAHL game in that old arena would really be something to see.

Corey Millen, the Wilderness’s head coach this year, is from Cloquet.  He played 10 years in the NHL, four years at the University of Minnesota, and played on two Olympic teams.  Corey returns to Cloquet after last playing in the barn in 1981,

The Wilderness will spend the next six weeks headed for the initial cut down list of 25 players before playing their opening season games at the NAHL Showcase (September 18-22) at the Super Rink in Blaine in front of hundreds of scouts and hundreds more fans.

The Wilderness’s #1 pick in this year’s NAHL draft, Canon Pieper (Roseville/Shattuck), appears to have  opted to play college hockey for the Quinnipiac.  Still the Wilderness roster is begining to shape up for their first NAHL season and looks something like this.

Billy Exell-Excell is a 1995 borne player out of Thunder Bay.  He was drafted by Sarnia Sting in last year Ontario Hockey League draft and ended up playing for the Thunder Bay Kings Midget AAA team at the end of the season.  A prolific goal scorer as a bantam AAA/midget AAA player, Excell has put the puck in the net 101 times in the past four seasons (237 games).  The Wilderness picked him #2 (#52 overall) in the NAHL draft this past June.

Blake Brazil-Brazil is another 1995 player who hails from Fairbanks AK  He spend last year playing for the California Titans in the North American Prospects Hockey League.

Colton Kramer–Kramer is ’94 player that has spent the last two seasons in the NAHL playing for the Austin Bruins and the Aberdeen Wings.  Kramer is noted for his stick handling.

Jakob Romo-A 95 player, Romo has spent the last two seasons playing in the NAHL for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.

Joe Drapluk-Drapluk played last season for the Wilderness in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.  Drapluk hails from Pembroke Pine, FL.  Pembroke Pine is just east of the Everglades, just west of the Atlantic beaches, and just north of Miami.  Obviously, he loves hockey.

Johno May-May played three years for the Mahtomedi Zephyrs and was the Zephyrs #2 scorer for two years behind Tanner Jordan who is likely to play for the Fresno Monsters in the NAHL this season.  Last season May joined the NAHL Bismarck Bobcats and ended the season playing for the Janesville Jets.

Keanu Yamamoto-A 1996 borne player, he played for the LA Jr. Kings 16U AAA team last season.  Yamamoto takes a big leap to the NAHL.

Michael Covach-Covach skated two seasons for the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers scoring 62 points in 69 games (42 goals).  He played last year in the NAHL, starting with the NAHL’s Janesville Jets, movng to the Soo Eagles, and ending the season with the Topeka Roadrunners.

 Ryan McNeely-McNeely is a 1993 borne player out of Scottsdale AZ who skated with the .  He started his NAHL career with the New Mexico Mustangs and played last season with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and the Corpus Christi IceRays.  He played with the Phoenix Jr Coyotes before joining the NAHL.

Tanner Holmquist- Holmquist is another 1993 borne player who played a full season for the Aberdeen Wings in the NAHL in 2012-2013.  He lead the Hopkins varsity in scoring his last two seasons and was the Royals second leading scorer as a sophomore.

Ted Pieleta-Pieleta is a 1994 player out of Michigan Division 2 High School hockey.  He played for  Kingsford High School, a town on the Wisconsin border just west of Escanaba MI.

Thomas Lindstrom –Last March, Lindstrom played for Breck High School in the Class A State Tourney.  He scored 72 goals in 72 regular season games for the Mustangs over the past three years and amassed 150 points overall.

Tyler Cline-Last season, Cline played for the Blaine High School team that was seeded #1 in Section 5AA only to be upset by Champlin Park 5-4 in the semifinals.  Cline played three seasons for the Bengals posting 88 points (25 goals) in 75 games.

Zachary Jordan- Borne in 1996, Jordan played last season in the Central States Development Hockey League for the Twin Bridges U18 team.  Twin Bridges is located in North St. Louis County MO and Madison County IL.  Jordan is a scorer, but he will be taking a big step in playing in the NAHL.

An interesting contrast is developing between the two Minnesota teams.  The Magicians roster at this point is more focused on players coming out of Minnesota High School hockey and then adding to those players.  The Wilderness’ roster is drawing players from all over and augmenting those with some Minnesota players.

Both can be winning strategies.  At the NAHL level, talent will win out, but it the approaches are diverse and can lead to an interesting rivalry between in-state (with a Twin Cities focus) roster of the Magicians playing a diverse out state team in the Wilderness.

Both teams are mixing older players (hard to think of a 20 year old player as old) with 17 year old players.  It will be interesting to see how the younger player do against the older players in a serious hockey game.

The rosters are not set and anything can change before September 18; but there will be more than just hot August days ahead.  The 2013-2014 hockey season is heating up.