Years of strong work on the draft floor have left the Minnesota Wild with such a deep system that we felt 24 of their prospects deserved a mention in this article. Even that might not be sufficient.

Having a large quantity of B and C-level prospects is mostly a positive. Many of their young players are arriving to the AHL at the same time, allowing them to develop together as a group. It's a bit of a double-edged sword though, as many of these players will be competing against one another for the same deployment opportunities. The best ones will break through, but the ones with more deficiencies in their game may slip through the cracks.

More than the system's depth, it's the team's top-level prospects – players like Zeev Buium, Jesper Wallstedt, and Danila Yurov – that elevated it to the eighth overall spot. These players all ranked in the first half of our top-100 affiliated skater prospects list. They have the best chance of becoming potential impact players for the franchise in the short term.