Prosofsky Looking to Complete Junior Career With Complete 2023-24 Season

WENATCHEE, Wash. – As his final season of junior hockey approaches, Karter Prosofsky is trying to make sure the 2023-24 season is a complete one.

He’s hoping to ensure that his game is whole this year – as in, strong in as many facets as possible. He’s also hoping to put together a full season, after appearing in a career-high 34 games last year for the Winnipeg ICE. Two other seasons were shortened due to COVID shutdowns and restrictions.

“I had surgery on my thumb last year. That wasn’t fun,” said Prosofsky. “I’m going to try and put a full one together here this year.”

The blueliner from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is only 5’10”, but won’t hesitate to throw his weight around when necessary, and views himself as an offensive defenseman who enjoys playing inside the attacking zone. After starring for the Saskatoon Maniacs AA program, he moved on to the Pacific Coast Hockey Academy in Victoria, British Columbia, where he scored 18 points in 24 games for the school’s under-15 Prep team.

That season earned Prosofsky a second-round selection in the Western Hockey League bantam draft by the Kootenay ICE in Cranbrook, British Columbia, part of the team’s final draft class before its relocation to Winnipeg in 2019. He spent most of the 2018-19 season with the Saskatoon Blazers AAA program, but made his long-awaited Kootenay debut November 1 of that season, in a 4-2 win against the Saskatoon Blades.

Prosofsky’s stay in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League wouldn’t last much longer – a seven-game stay with the RINK Hockey Academy in Winnipeg gave way to a 34-game season in the WHL with the Winnipeg ICE in 2019-20, just as the ICE organization was beginning a brief renaissance in its new home. Despite some difficult circumstances across the sport the following year, he improved on his scoring total from the previous year, with a dozen points in just 22 games, marking his first junior goal with the game-winner in a 4-3 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders.

His 2021-22 campaign came to an end at the New Year’s holiday, but not before notching seven more points in 25 games. Prosofsky was hoping to put together that complete season last year as the ICE reset the league’s 68-game record with 57 regular-season wins, before that thumb surgery brought an end to his regular season two months early. Still, he set a new career-best with 17 points, and added six postseason assists in the organization’s first trip to the WHL Final in more than a decade.

“It takes everyone to win, and obviously, we didn’t get the final result we wanted, but we got pretty darn close,” said Prosofsky. “It just takes everyone to buy into the system, and that’s what it comes down to – work hard and play as a team.”

With hopes of closing his junior career on a big note, Prosofsky is putting in the extra work during the summer, focusing on cardio and skating several times a week, while enjoying outdoor time on the water and the golf course in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Despite the success of the last several years in Winnipeg, he says he and the rest of his teammates are looking forward to a few positives with the move to Wenatchee as well.

“I think the fresh start for everyone is going to be unreal,” said Prosofsky. “Obviously, we’ll be in the States now so it’ll be different, but I think the fresh start for everyone on the roster is going to be unreal for us.”

Prosofsky will be competing for one of three 20-year-old slots on this year’s team, and will hope to be one of the lucky few to complete the Wild roster as the 2023-24 season begins.

(Note: this is the 11th in a series of offseason profiles on players set to join the Wild following the relocation of the Winnipeg ICE. Previous profiles are linked below.)