Wild focus on reload as WHL trade deadline draws near

Conor Geekie in action for the Winnipeg Ice in 2023.

So who would have had Kenta Isogai being the face of the Wenatchee Wild a year ago on their bingo card as being a thing in the WHL?

The 19-year-old left-winger Nagano, Japan, is playing through his first year in the WHL leading the Wild in scoring with 56 points coming off 20 goals and 36 assists to go with a plus-23 rating in the plus-minus department. Entering play on Tuesday, he sat ninth in the overall scoring race for the circuit.

Isogai is not a rookie junior. He played the last nine seasons with the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League helping the Phantoms win the USHL title last season.

The Wild claimed Isogai’s CHL rights by selecting him in the first round and 60^th overall in the CHL Import Draft held on July 5, 2023. The Phantoms proceeded to allow Isogai to be released to the Wild.

Of course, the Wild franchise in the WHL was formerly the Winnipeg Ice, who fell in last year’s WHL Championship Series to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Ice were sold to David and Lisa White of the Shoot the Puck Foundation, who owned the junior A Wenatchee Wild franchise that has played in the British Columbia Hockey League since 2015.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.