Sam Hentges

June 2023 – Hentges, a Minnesota native drafted by his hometown NHL club in the  seventh round in 2018, just played his first season for the Iowa Wild of the AHL. As a rookie, he put up three points in 19 games with limited ice time. Hentges is a project and will need several years in the AHL before potentially making a jump to the NHL. It will be interesting to see if he can have a strong second AHL season in 2023-24. Nathan Leblanc

January 2023 – Hentges is a local Minnesota native who the Wild decided to take a flyer on during the 7th round of the 2018 NHL Draft. It looked like a great pick as Hentges went on to have a strong career at St. Cloud State University putting up an over PPG season of 22 points in only 20 games during the 2021-22 season. This led him to signing an entry-level deal with the Wild organization with his first professional season being the 2022-23 season. To date, Hentges has been struggling with his inability to be able to suit up for games only playing in 1 career AHL to date. Due to the lack of playing time and ability to develop, Hentges has an uphill battle to make the NHL one day, however due to his relatively young age and talent, he can’t be counted out. Nathan Leblanc

May 2019 – Hentges is a determined player who has battled injuries but has shown the willingness to work on his craft away from the ice when that is the case. He had a solid freshman season at St. Cloud State University (NCAA) scoring 10 goals and 10 assists in 37 games. He uses his speed to beat defenders and get to the front on the net. He does the little things well and positions himself in the offensive zone to create good scoring opportunity. Hentges did not deal with any major injuries this season and his development is back on track after a couple of injury plagued draft year. That factor caused him to fall all the way to the seventh round as no one was able to get a good read on how he had been developing in his lone year in the USHL. The Minnesota native needs to work on his positioning and compete level in his own zone but he excels at moving through the neutral zone with speed. His resilience will be a key factor as to whether Hentges makes it to the professional ranks after spending a couple of years in the NCAA. Tony Ferrari