The Minnesota Wild are considered to have one of the better prospect pools in the NHL. Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club’s top 30 prospects. Every player on the list will be 25 years old or younger, whose rights are currently held by the Wild or are on AHL or NHL deals and have played less than 40 NHL games.
#30 Kyle Masters, RHD
Age: 21
Shoots: Right
Height: 6'0''
Weight: 176
Contract: 25/26
Draft: 2021 fourth-round pick (118)
Last Year's Rankings: Not Ranked
Projection: 6th/7th defender who can fill power-play time if he makes the NHL.
The right-shot defender is one of five defensemen with rights to the Wild that shoots right. The Wild's main weakness in their prospect pool is right-shot defensemen.
Masters, 21, was the Wild's 118th overall pick in the 2021 draft. He spent the 2023-24 season split between the Iowa Wild of the AHL and the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL.
In 19 AHL games with Iowa, Masters recorded just three assists but was a plus-3 on a very young Iowa Wild team. In 32 ECHL games with the Heartlanders, Masters recorded four goals, 15 assists, and 19 points. He was a minus-9 as well.
The 6-foot defender played four years in the Western Hockey league (WHL), three years with the Red Deer Rebels and one year with the Kamloops Blazers. He recorded five goals, 22 assists, and 27 points in 109 games with Red Deer.
After being traded to Kamloops, Masters took his game to another level. He finished his final season in the WHL with 11 goals, 54 assists, and 65 points in 66 games for the Blazers. He had one goal and seven points in 14 playoff games that year as well.
With a full year of professional hockey under his belt, Masters will look to take a step forward this year and hopefully be an Iowa Wild mainstay in his sophomore season.
