Minnesota Wild Signing 2022 Draft Pick, 2x National Champ

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Minnesota Wild 2022 2nd round draft pick Rieger Lorenz : Frozen Four-National Championship
Credit: Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

We are still waiting to find out when the Minnesota Wild will play game one of their first round playoff series against the Dallas Stars, but according to reports, both the Wild and Stars are expecting to land one of the Saturday afternoon slots.

In the meantime, the only Wild team playing games this week will be AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. They have three games remaining on their 2025-26 regular season schedule, all of which will be played on home ice.

And after calling up some of Iowa’s best players to assist with the big league hockey club, Wild president of hockey operations Bill Guerin has been busy signing reinforcements for his AHL affiliate.

After top prospect Charlie Stramel’s broken ankle ended his hopes of making his professional debut this spring, the Minnesota Wild locked him in for the future, then turned their attention elsewhere.

Minnesota Wild nearing deal with former 2nd Round pick

On Tuesday, Michael Russo (The Athletic) reported that the Wild were closing in on a deal with “one of us” defenseman Ben Dexheimer, a college free agent from the University of Wisconsin.

Wednesday, he signed that deal, as did 2022 second round pick and 2025-26 National Champion, Denver forward Rieger Lorenz.

Both Dexheimer and Rieger — who were just on the ice against each other in the National Championship last week — are expected to suit up down in Iowa, for one of the Wild’s three remaining games.

Unlike his former rival-turned-teammate, who signed with Minnesota as a free agent, Lorenz was selected No. 56 overall by the MN Wild, during the 2022 NHL Draft. Since that day, he’s won two Natties and two NCHC titles.

During his four-year career as a Denver Pioneer, Rieger Lorenz scored 41 goals and assisted on 53 more, for a total of collegiate 93 points.

What does Lorenz offer Wild?

This season, while wearing the “A” for the first time, the Canadian senior posted career highs in goals (17), assists (18) and, obviously, points (35). Two of those goals came during Denver’s historic NCAA Tournament run.

The first came in the Pioneers 5-0 first round victory over Cornell. Then, down 1-0 in the second period of the National Championship game vs Wisconsin, he scored the game-tying goal, to make it 1-1. Denver went on to win 2-1.

Clearly, Lorenz has a sense for the big moment. Nearly to the day, one year earlier (April 10, 2025), he did the same thing in Denver’s Frozen Four matchup against Western Michigan, tying the game 1-1 on a clean up goal in front of the net, following a shot from the point by one of his defensemen (first video below).

More MN Wild News: New Injury Could Shift Outlook of Wild vs Stars Playoff Series

Over the course of his college career, Rieger scored 4 goals and 3 assists in the postseason, and most of them either tied or wound up winning games for the Pioneers. In Denver’s 2-0 National Title victory over Boston College in 2023-24, Lorenz potted one of the Pioneers goals (second video below), and assisted on the other.

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