Wild Forward Prospect Aiming for NHL

The Minnesota Wild are putting together one of the best season’s the organization has seen in a long time, yet their future may only be getting brighter. With a top-five prospect pool in the NHL, one of the key Wild youngsters might be heading for the NHL sooner than expected.

According to a report from Responsible Gambler, Wild prospect forward Danila Yurov plans on leaving Russia’s KHL after deciding not to negotiate a new contract with Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

At 21 years old, Yurov will have to sign some sort of contract with the Wild before making his way to North America, but that shouldn’t be an issue for the organization. The excitement around the youngster is real as he projects to be a top-line winger at the NHL level.

Yurov may not make the jump to the NHL until next season, but he’s playing as if he’s ready for his chance with the Wild.

Coming off of a Gagarin Cup with Merallurg, Yurov has scored nine goals and 11 assists for 20 total points in 37 games this season. He put up a career year during their cup run last season, posting 49 points (21G-28A) in 62 games.

The Wild have one of the NHL’s top prospect pools, especially at forward, with the likes of Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov. Yurov is right there with those two, expected to lead the Wild to an extremely bright future.

Both Ohgren and Khusnutdinov have already made their NHL debuts and are already growing in the Wild’s system. Yurov should be next and will likely follow the footsteps of Khusnutdinov who also left the KHL to make the jump to the NHL.

Yurov was a first-round pick of the Wild (24th overall) in 2022. Ohgren was also taken by the Wild in the first round of 2022 (19th overall).

If everyone lives up to their potential, the Russian trio of Yurov, Khuznutdinov, and Kirill Kaprizov could lead the Wild as one of the NHL’s top teams.