11 Players with Ties to Organization Land on NHL Opening Night Rosters
WENATCHEE, Wash. – The National Hockey League regular season begins Monday afternoon, and the Wenatchee Wild are excited to announce that 11 players with ties to the club have been named to Opening Night rosters across the NHL, including three who stepped onto the ice during Wenatchee’s Junior A era from 2008 to 2023. Monday’s five-game Opening Night schedule marks the earliest North American start in the league’s history, and matches the date of its NHL Premiere season-opening games in London in 2007. Each team will play 84 games this season, matching the most in league history, played during both the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons.
Eight players will open their seasons in the NHL after previously appearing for the WHL organization currently in Wenatchee, formerly known as the Winnipeg ICE and Kootenay ICE. Three former Kootenay players will start their seasons in the NHL, including Sam Reinhart, beginning his 13th professional season and sixth with the Florida Panthers. Injuries limited Reinhart to 64 games and 61 points last season, but his 21 minutes per game on the ice were a career high. Brayden McNabb starts his 10th season with the Vegas Golden Knights, and 15th in the NHL – he helped to lead the Golden Knights to their third Stanley Cup Final in their brief history, hammering out 10 points in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Cale Fleury played 23 games last year to reach 100 for his NHL career, and will start the year on the Seattle Kraken roster.
Three of the five former Winnipeg ICE players in the NHL also appeared in Wenatchee at least once. Conor Geekie spent the bulk of last season in the American Hockey League with the Syracuse Crunch, but played 14 NHL games and returns to Tampa Bay to start this season. Zach Benson made a pair of preseason appearances for the Wild ahead of the 2023-24 season before departing permanently to join the Buffalo Sabres – Benson begins his fourth season in the NHL after posting a career-best 43 points a year ago. His +27 plus/minus rating ranked second on the team, and his four game-winning goals tied for fourth. Those marks helped the Sabres to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 19 years, and helped earn him a new seven-year contract in Buffalo. Matthew Savoie played in all 82 games for the Edmonton Oilers, picking up 37 points, including five game-winning goals. He closed out the 2025-26 regular season with his first NHL hat trick on April 16, but will start the 2026-27 season on the Oilers’ injured list.
Two others played in Winnipeg, but saw their WHL careers end before the team’s 2023 relocation to Wenatchee. Like Benson, Peyton Krebs had four game-winners for the Sabres, and returns to Buffalo this year – he played all 82 games last season for the very first time, and his 39 points were also a new career-best. Zack Ostapchuk became a regular in the San Jose Sharks lineup, playing 59 games and registering seven points, and returns to San Jose to start the 2026-27 campaign.
Nic Dowd begins his 11th season in the NHL, and first full season in Vegas after a late-season trade from the Washington Capitals last year. Between the two teams, he played a total of 75 games and tallied 21 points, entering the year just three points shy of 200 for his career. He opened his junior career with the Wild during the club’s very first season in the North American Hockey League in 2008, and led the club to the Robertson Cup national championship game the following May.
Two others will open this year in the NHL after playing for the Wild in the BCHL – Devin Cooley returns to the NHL with the Calgary Flames after playing his first full NHL season a year ago – he took home a 10-10-6 record last year, with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. Harrison Scott begins the season on the Dallas Stars’ injured list after signing a two-year contract with the club in June – he is set to join the NHL club full-time after playing 72 games and picking up 32 points last year for the AHL’s Texas Stars.
The Wenatchee Wild congratulate all 11 players on beginning the 2026-27 season with National Hockey League clubs, and wish them continued success as the season gets underway. Wild fans are encouraged to follow the progress of all alumni of the WHL organization and former Wild Junior A players throughout the season, with the club’s regular “Alumn-ICE Report” features on its website at WenatcheeWildHockey.com.
