Wild
Five for fighting: Wild’s rising young stars are battling to make their marks in the NHL
Zeev Buium, David Jiricek, Liam Ohgren, Jesper Wallstedt and Danila Yurov are prized first-round picks who are getting their chances this season.
By Sarah McLellan
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 8, 2025 at 12:01PM
Danila Yurov, Zeev Buium, Jesper Wallstedt, Liam Ohgren and David Jiricek, left to right, pose for a group portrait after a recent practice at Tria Rink in St. Paul on Thursday. Aged between 19 and 22 years old, all are getting a chance on hockey’s biggest stage this season. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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Aside from winning a national championship, the smooth skater with offensive instincts has a pair of gold medals from representing Team USA at the past two World Junior Championships, and Buium was also part of the U.S. roster that captured gold at the World Championship earlier this year for the first time in almost a century.
The Wild drafted him 12th overall in 2024.
“The stuff he can do with the puck, it’s insane,” veteran forward Marcus Foligno said. “The way he moves — Jiricek, too.”
Hockey didn’t turn serious for Jiricek until he was 15.
From left: David Jiricek, Danila Yurov, Liam Ohgren, Jesper Wallstedt and Zeev Buium bantered in the Wild’s meeting room at Tria Rink. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
While it was his No. 1 sport, he also played tennis and soccer. At 16, he was competing professionally in Czech Republic against men who had families. Fast forward a few more years to 2022, and the 6-4 defenseman with the booming shot was drafted sixth overall by Columbus.
But Jiricek never panned out with the organization, bouncing between the minors and the NHL roster, and the Wild acquired him last November in a trade that cost them a first-round pick.
“There’s for sure ups and downs,” Ohgren said. “Some weeks or months you play great. Some days you don’t feel that good, and you have bad games.”
“For a full year,” added Wallstedt, who was speaking from experience.
Last season was the first time Wallstedt, 22, didn’t enjoy hockey.
“Breakfast Club” vibes from Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium, Jesper Wallstedt, David Jiricek and Danila Yurov. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
He was supposed to get reps with the Wild after playing his first game the previous season, a seven-goal loss to Dallas that he rebounded from by posting his first career shutout in his next Wild start.
But a glut of injuries combined with the Wild’s salary-cap pinch forced Wallstedt to Iowa, the Wild’s minor-league team in the American Hockey League, and he struggled: only nine wins in 27 games and a sub-.900 save percentage, this after signing a two-year, $4.4 million contract that solidified him as Filip Gustavsson’s backup-in-waiting.
Wallstedt wasn’t in the right head space, and he talked to sports psychologists to help fix that.
“It was tough getting to the rink every day,” he said. “But now it’s so much fun again. It’s weird, too, how it switches so fast.”
Adversity is typical.
In one week, Buium went from leaving Denver after his sophomore season to signing with the Wild and drawing in for his NHL debut in the playoffs last spring — the first time that’s happened in Wild history. Four games later, the 19-year-old was out of the lineup and watched as the Wild were eliminated by Vegas.
Although Ohgren, 21, made the team out of training camp in 2024 after appearing in his first game earlier in the year, he lasted less than a month before getting demoted to Iowa.
Jiricek didn’t fit with the Blue Jackets, and he was frequently a healthy scratch by the Wild after the trade; eventually his fresh start ended prematurely because of a lacerated spleen. Yurov also dealt with sporadic ice time early in his KHL career, sometimes logging only seconds of action a game.
“You’re never going to play great every day,” Buium said. “If you’re too hard on yourself and forgetting why you’re really doing it, you’re going to find yourself stuck in a mental battle.”
Group project
Ohgren didn’t finish school because of hockey, beginning his pro career at 17.
Wallstedt moved 10 hours away from home when he was 15; Buium left at 13.
Yurov’s English is limited as he settles in from Russia. The 21-year-old signed his entry-level contract in May, and it’s possible he skates in his first NHL game Thursday.
“Just one more fellas!” Danila Yurov, David Jiricek, Jesper Wallstedt, Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium were good sports for photos after a practice at Tria Rink. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
If Jiricek’s brother, Adam, makes the Czech Republic team that’ll play in the World Junior Championship later this year in the Twin Cities, his family could spend its first Christmas together in seven years.
“It’s always hard,” Jiricek said. “But it’s just part of the hockey life. I chose it.”
He still feels young — Jiricek should; he’s only 21 — but he believes he has to be more mature than kids his age, and “100%” this lifestyle made him grow up fast.