MN Wild Plan to Sign and Play Top Prospect on Broken Ankle?

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NHL Draft - Minnesota Wild - Charlie Stramel
Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Charlie Stramel was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the first round (No. 21 overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft, after the Rosemount, MN native had already played one disappointing season at the University of Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, Madison was a bad fit for a kid born and raised in the southern Twin Cities suburbs, before leaving before his junior year of high school for the USA National Juniors Team.

While going to Wisconsin for two years, Stramel’s prospect status took a massive hit, as he struggled to score just 8 total goals and 12 assists (-14 +/-) in 67 games played.

Get to know top Minnesota Wild prospect, Charlie Stramel

So before his junior season, Stramel packed up and hit the transfer portal, where he landed with the Michigan State Spartans. Immediately upon his arrival East Lansing, Charlie was a completely different player.

In 2024-25, as a new junior on campus, Stramel scored 9 goals and assisted on 18 more. In case you missed it, that’s double what he posted in either categories during his two seasons at Wisconsin.

Related: Team USA Hockey Undecided on Bill Guerin as GM?

And Charlie’s senior campaign was even better. While wearing the “A” for Sparty hockey this season, the uber-talented forward helped carry Michigan State all the way to the final eight teams in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, Sparty blew a 3-1 lead over the weekend and fell in overtime to Stramel’s former school.

Normally, a highly-touted prospect like Stramel — whose rights are already owned by the Minnesota Wild — would shed tears with his college teammates, take a day or two to recover from such a soul-crushing loss, then sign with his NHL team.

And that was certainly the expected outcome for Charlie, who the Minnesota Wild planned to immediately inject into their late-season (and maybe even Playoff) lineup, despite the fact that it will burn a year of his rookie contract.

Of course, that was before Michigan State’s 21-year-old forward left their NCAA Tournament game last weekend vs Wisconsin with a lower-body injury that was later diagnosed as a broken ankle. Logically, most of us assumed when the news broke that our 2026 Wild + Charlie Stramel dreams were dead.

MN Wild planning to sign Charlie Stramel and burn year, despite injury?

But not so fast. Since the injury occurred, NHL insiders Michael Russo and Joe Smith are reporting that Wild president of hockey operations Bill Guerin still plans to sign Stramel and burn the first year of his deal, broken ankle and all.

That doesn’t make logical sense, right? Well according to Russo and Smith’s most recent co-written piece at The Athletic, the Minnesota Wild are holding out hope Stramel can still help them in the playoffs… (again — on a broken ankle).

[Stramel’s] injury has delayed the process [for signing him], as the Wild seek further clarity on its extent. Still, the Wild will likely sign Stramel to his entry-level contract in the coming days and burn the first year of the deal. That means Stramel would join the team, rehab with them and potentially be available in the playoffs.

Michael Russo and Joe Smith – The Athletic

Obviously, there are different tiers to every injury, and if any professional athlete is going to play through a broken ankle, it would 100% be a hockey player. Still, this situation smells funny.

Even in a world where Stramel were completely healthy, there would be a ton of questions over whether he’s capable of making a positive impact on the 2025-26 Wild lineup this early in his career.

Of course, that doesn’t usually matter in the NHL. It’s customary to call up top prospects and burn a year, even if they aren’t ready for a major role on their NHL team, and despite the playoff hopes of said team.

But, dare I assume that, in MOST of those instances, the college prospects being signed are able to get on the ice at least some, and they are certainly NOT injured.

What is really going on here…?

Being Charlie’s ankle is broken, the prudent move would be for Minnesota to wait until after the season to sign him (they have until August 15). The other option would be to sign him now and assign him to Iowa (like they are with their other college prospects).

Either decision would save a year on Stramel’s rookie deal with the Minnesota Wild. Instead, they are trying to sell us on hope that he might “be available” for a playoff run that they don’t need him for?

Let’s be honest, playing Stramel while injured would make very little sense. So, if they aren’t signing him with the hope that he can play in the postseason, why is Russo so confident the Wild will eventually sign him and burn a year of his contract anyway — whether the 21-year-old is healthy enough to play or not?

Well, this “hope” that Charlie Stramel might be ready by the playoffs feels more like Guerin stretching the truth, in order to avoid a large amount of fan blowback for doing something that makes absolutely no logical sense for the Minnesota Wild.

Yes, Stramel becomes a free agent if he doesn’t sign by August. But by then, the playoffs will be over. And as mentioned above, if they want to sign him now, they could just assign him to Iowa. This isn’t a “sign or die” situation, like we are apparently supposed to believe.

But just in case you were wondering how Russo feels about the article you just read, he didn’t hold back in our Twitter comments.

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