Five for fighting: Wild’s rising young stars are battling to make their marks in the NHL

The whiz kid. The raw talent. The protégé. The technician. The newcomer.

They’re the Wild’s version of “The Breakfast Club” and with the season starting Thursday night at St. Louis, class is in session.

Zeev Buium grew up having BBQs on Friday nights outside the San Diego Ice Arena in California.

When he was 13, David Jiricek cleaned the ice in between whistles for the pros in Czech Republic before eventually playing in those games.

One year, Liam Ohgren didn’t spend Christmas at home in Stockholm, instead celebrating in the United States with current Wild forward Marcus Johansson and former NHLer Nicklas Backstrom, whose personal trainer was Ohgren’s dad.

An hour away in Sweden, Jesper Wallstedt lived on the same street as his two best friends, and they battled in street hockey after school.

As for Danila Yurov, he was 4 years old when he took up hockey; his favorite player was fellow Russian and Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin.

Or, more specifically, in the team’s meeting room at Tria Rink in St. Paul on a recent afternoon, where they bantered about video games and the languages they speak like they were hanging out in a lecture hall at college.

“Hynsie’s the professor,” Buium said, referring to Wild coach John Hynes, and the comparison clicks.

From 19 to 22 years old, they are the right age, and they certainly would be enrolled in the same course: all five are prized first-round draft picks trying to break into the NHL; they even have their own superlatives.

“Right now, we’re trying to prove ourselves,” Buium said, “trying to show that we deserve to be on this team and that we can help them win.”

Their destinations weren’t always the same, but hockey has taken these Wild players all around the world.

Aside from winning a national championship, the smooth skater with offensive instincts has a pair of gold medals from representing Team USA at the past two World Junior Championships, and Buium was also part of the U.S. roster that captured gold at the World Championship earlier this year for the first time in almost a century.

The Wild drafted him 12th overall in 2024.

“The stuff he can do with the puck, it’s insane,” veteran forward Marcus Foligno said. “The way he moves — Jiricek, too.”

Hockey didn’t turn serious for Jiricek until he was 15.

While it was his No. 1 sport, he also played tennis and soccer. At 16, he was competing professionally in Czech Republic against men who had families. Fast-forward a few more years to 2022, and the 6-4 defenseman with the booming shot was drafted sixth overall by Columbus.

“He’s got a lot of tools,” said Bill Guerin, president of hockey operations.

Ohgren was also a pro at home before moving to the United States, and that was nothing new for him: he’d been facing off against older players since he joined his first team at 4 years old, and he grew up alongside Backstrom and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog while his dad, Andreas, trained them.

Like Buium, Ohgren has multiple medals from international tournaments, and the winger was recognized as the best forward in Sweden’s junior league before getting drafted 19th in 2022 — the Wild identifying his strength and skill as a match for their style.

“He’s got great speed,” Hynes said.

Then there’s Wallstedt who, despite not going all-in on the position until he was 12, is the highest-drafted goalie out of Sweden in NHL history.

“I believe in him as a player and as a person,” Guerin said.

Yurov was drafted shortly after Ohgren in 2022 with the 24th pick.

During most of his junior career, Yurov was better than a point-per-game producer, and he acclimated to the KHL the more he played: his first full-time season in Russia’s No. 1 league saw the center/wing with two-way smarts pass Vladimir Tarasenko for the most points in a season by an under-21 player.

“He broke my record, which is amazing,” said Tarasenko, who’s also new to the Wild after being a longtime rival with the Blues before coming over in an offseason trade. “I’m happy for him, and hopefully [he’ll] have a bright future.”

Since 2005, when the salary cap was implemented and made younger players on cheaper contracts more valuable, approximately 84% of first-round picks drafted through last year have appeared in at least one NHL regular-season game.

“There’s for sure ups and downs,” Ohgren said. “Some weeks or months you play great. Some days you don’t feel that good, and you have bad games.”

“For a full year,” added Wallstedt, who was speaking from experience.

Last season was the first time Wallstedt, 22, didn’t enjoy hockey.

He was supposed to get reps with the Wild after playing his first game the previous season, a seven-goal loss to Dallas that he rebounded from by posting his first career shutout in his next Wild start.

But a glut of injuries combined with the Wild’s salary-cap pinch forced Wallstedt to Iowa, the Wild’s minor-league team in the American Hockey League, and he struggled: only nine wins in 27 games and a sub-.900 save percentage, this after signing a two-year, $4.4 million contract that solidified him as Filip Gustavsson’s backup-in-waiting.

“It was tough getting to the rink every day,” he said. “But now it’s so much fun again. It’s weird, too, how it switches so fast.”

Adversity is typical.

In one week, Buium went from leaving Denver after his sophomore season to signing with the Wild and drawing in for his NHL debut in the playoffs last spring — the first time that’s happened in Wild history. Four games later, the 19-year-old was out of the lineup and watched as the Wild were eliminated by Vegas.

Although Ohgren, 21, made the team out of training camp in 2024 after appearing in his first game earlier in the year, he lasted less than a month before getting demoted to Iowa.

Jiricek didn’t fit with the Blue Jackets, and he was frequently a healthy scratch by the Wild after the trade; eventually his fresh start ended prematurely because of a lacerated spleen. Yurov also dealt with sporadic ice time early in his KHL career, sometimes logging only seconds of action a game.

Ohgren didn’t finish school because of hockey, beginning his pro career at 17.

Wallstedt moved 10 hours away from home when he was 15; Buium left at 13.

Yurov’s English is limited as he settles in from Russia. The 21-year-old signed his entry-level contract in May, and it’s possible he skates in his first NHL game Thursday.

If Jiricek’s brother, Adam, makes the Czech Republic team that’ll play in the World Junior Championship later this year in the Twin Cities, his family could spend its first Christmas together in seven years.

“It’s always hard,” Jiricek said. “But it’s just part of the hockey life. I chose it.”

“Everyone else our age [is] probably not doing what we’re doing,” Wallstedt said. “But also getting back to what Zeev was saying, even when it’s tough or when it’s hard, it’s kind of interesting to think how many people would switch positions with you as soon as they can. Our job is a privilege.”

Their childhood hobby is now their profession, and that shift comes with scrutiny.

“It’s natural to see things,” Buium said. “You’re going to scroll Instagram. You’re going to scroll Twitter. You’re going to see something good or bad. I always just think I can’t ever take it personally. For me, I’m a fan of sports, too. When I watch a basketball game and Steph Curry misses a three, you’re like, ‘Aww.’ ... But people are passionate, and they care, and they want this team to succeed.

“This is a big hockey market, and eyes are always on you. So, I think that also comes [with] it’s a privilege. If you don’t have that pressure, you’re probably not doing something right.”

They’re also not alone.

“If you win the game, after the game it’s fun to be around the guys,” Jiricek said. “Yeah, that’s what motivates me and us: win the game. Be with the friends. I really don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t have hockey.”

“[To] piggyback off him, too, it’s a great point,” Buium said. “Even when you look back on your past teams that you’ve been on that you love, you don’t remember certain moments from games, in this period this happened. You only remember the relationship you had with the guys in the locker room, the times after. That’s a big piece of what kind of keeps you going, if you have that connection and culture with the guys.”

“That’s what’s so special about team sports,” Wallstedt chimed in.

“Yeah, exactly,” Jiricek agreed.

“We’re all doing it together,” Wallstedt said.

“Of course,” he said. “That’s why it’s my life.”

Ohgren’s been dreaming of playing in the NHL since he started the sport.

“I think the little Liam would be pretty excited,” he said.

Except for that time when he was 3 years old and he told his grandma he wanted to be president of Sweden, Wallstedt has been focused on hockey.

He and his brother, Jacob, would stay up late on weekends to watch Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist on the New York Rangers; puck drop was usually at 1 a.m.

The United States. Czech Republic. Sweden. Russia.

Defenseman. Forward. Goalie.

But as a Saturday in detention showed in “The Breakfast Club,” what they have in common is more important.

“Future,” Jiricek said.

They’re the next generation of the Wild, and all five getting a chance to establish themselves at the same time isn’t a fluke.

“We need some time to get ourselves comfortable and get ourselves together,” Jiricek said, “and after that, I hope it will be fun for fans to watch us.”

They can still ask questions — their education is far from complete — but now they have to show what they’ve learned.

Pencils down.

Time to play.