​Hockey scouts will tell you that you can teach skating and shooting, but you cannot instill size. With that in mind, the Minnesota Wild used their first pick in the NHL draft on some blue-line heft. After previously trading away their first- and second-round picks, the Wild grew impatient in Round 3, making a trade with the Los Angeles Kings to move up six spots. With the 83rd overall selection on Saturday morning, Minnesota chose defenseman Adam Andersson, who skated for Leksands IF in the Swedish U-20 league last season. Andersson, who will turn 18 next week, may be in Minnesota for the team’s development camp, is a 6-foot-4 blueliner. He was ranked 20th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting before the draft. “You take the players that are up on your list and you’re happy with,” Wild general manager Bill Guerin said after they opted for size across all three picks. “They just happen to be big guys, which we like and we don’t have a ton of… The fact that they’re bigger guys is just a bonus.”
Judd Brackett, the Wild’s director of amateur scouting for five years who had led their draft efforts, left the organization recently for an assistant general manager job with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Replacing him, Minnesota’s director of European scouting, Ricard Persson, guided the 2026 draft with input from assistant general manager Mat Sells from the team’s war room at TRIA Rink in St. Paul. “Andersson is a big centerman with a strong work ethic,” Persson said of his compatriot, calling him “heavy and hard to play against. A relentless worker who understands the game both offensively and defensively.” The forward played a heavy checking role and was a member of Sweden’s U18 gold-medal team in the spring.
The Wild’s top defensive pair, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes (assuming Hughes signs a contract extension) is set for now, but beyond them the long-term futures of players like Zach Bogosian, Jonas Brodin, and captain Jared Spurgeon are less certain, so adding a blue-line prospect made sense. In Round 4, the Wild again traded up and again targeted size, selecting 6-foot-4 forward Kayden Lemire, who played for Prince George in the Canadian major junior leagues last season. Lemire, 18, is originally from Edmonton and posted nine goals with 20 assists in 68 games. “Kayden is a big, power forward who plays a heavy game,” Wild scout Patrick Baum said. “He moves well and provides a good net-front presence. He operates well below the dots and behind the net.”
They continued to chase size in Round 5, using their final pick on Filip Ruzicka, a 6-foot-7 goalie from Czechia who played Canadian major junior hockey last season. He won 26 games for Brandon, Manitoba, in the Western Hockey League. The draft also touched on future Minnesota Duluth forward Victor Plante, who joined his older brother Max as a Red Wings prospect when Detroit chose him, continuing the team’s strategy of adding larger players to the system.