Wild reassign Hunter Jones to Iowa

On Thursday morning, after their comeback unfortunately came up short against the Vegas Golden Knights the previous night, the Minnesota Wild reassigned rookie goaltender Hunter Jones back to the Iowa Wild of the AHL.

Brought up to the taxi squad assumingly for some NHL practices on April 28, Jones, 20, is headed back down to the AHL to get some late-season game time. Iowa has just five games remaining in their regular season and because of the AHL cancelling their postseason, that will be it for the Wild’s minor affiliate.

The 2019 second-round pick is experiencing professional hockey for the first time in the midst of a global pandemic, so if his .871 save percentage and 4.06 goals against average don’t please your prospect-loving brain, then maybe take it with a grain of salt. This is on an Iowa team that has lost its veteran depth due to the installation of the NHL taxi squad and has had some significant turnover.

Just last season for his final year as a member of the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, Jones was able to have the league’s fifth-best save percentage (.913) and fourth-best goals against average (2.75). While it’s hard to analyze netminders at this young age, there is still plenty of time for him to develop at his craft when everything is back to normal.

We’ll see if he gets some game time on a team that has been headlined by newcomer Matt Boldy and breakout rookie defenseman Calen Addison.