Current Wild Trio, Pair of Recent Alumni Earn Invites to NHL Rookie Camps
WENATCHEE, Wash. – As the Wenatchee Wild preseason continues, the Wild are excited to announce that three players on the team’s 2024-25 preseason roster have received invitations to National Hockey League rookie camps, with events scheduled leaguewide for this Friday through Monday. The NHL preseason will follow soon afterward, with the first NHL preseason game scheduled for September 21 and the beginning of the regular season slated for October 4.
Two of the current Wenatchee players heading to rookie camps received invitations from the Colorado Avalanche, as forward Miles Cooper and defenseman Josh Fluker head to the Rookie Faceoff in El Segundo, California. The Avalanche will be part of a seven-team contingent at the event, with Colorado scheduled to play three games. Cooper was named Wenatchee’s Rookie of the Year last season after posting 18 goals and 28 assists in 65 games in his first full WHL campaign, while Fluker split a 64-game season between the Wild and the Swift Current Broncos and finished with 15 points. Both earned spots on NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings list ahead of the NHL Draft this past summer.
Forward Kenta Isogai also earned an NHL rookie camp nod, joining the Florida Panthers for the 2024 NHL Rookie Showcase in Nashville, Tennessee. The Panthers and three other teams will play three games apiece at the showcase over a four-day stretch. Isogai earned an invite from the defending Stanley Cup champions after an 88-point season for the Wild last year, which led the team and earned him a spot on the U.S. Division First All-Star Team at year’s end.
Two recent graduates from the Wild will be meeting up with NHL teams at rookie camps this weekend as well. Wenatchee alumnus Briley Wood will be part of Colorado’s roster in El Segundo, after a 2023-24 season in which he scored 62 points over 60 regular-season appearances, and topped the WHL’s first-round scoring leaderboard in the playoffs with 13 points. Defenseman Graham Sward will suit up for the Winnipeg Jets at this weekend’s Young Stars tournament in Penticton, British Columbia, with the Jets set to play games on Friday, Sunday and Monday. Last season, Sward tied the organization’s scoring record among defensemen, notching 81 points and earning a Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy nomination for the WHL’s Defenseman of the Year.
All five were vital to Wenatchee’s success during the 2023-24 season, the first since the WHL club’s relocation from Winnipeg, Manitoba last summer. Last year’s Wild team earned 34 wins and a fourth-place finish in the Western Conference standings, earning home-ice advantage in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
Tickets for the team’s season-opening game September 21 against the Seattle Thunderbirds are now on sale, as are single-game tickets for all 34 games on Wenatchee’s upcoming home schedule. To purchase single-game tickets, multi-game packs or 2024-25 season tickets, call 509-888-7825 or stop into the team office at Town Toyota Center. Updated news and information on Wild hockey are always available through the team’s website and on the team’s social media platforms on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.
