Bemidji State Could See Two Alums on the Minnesota Wild This Season

From Beaver to Wild, Gerry Fitzgerald did not have to travel far after his playing days were up at Bemidji State last spring. Fitzgerald signed a contract with the Minnesota Wild’s minor league team, the Iowa Wild, and he is now participating in training camp to try and make the NHL roster.

“I loved it in Iowa,” Gerry Fitzgerald, Bemidji State Forward from 2014-2018, said. “I played 16 games last year after my college career, and it helped a lot for where I’m at now and for this season coming up.”

Fitzgerald was excited to get the call back to training camp this year and is looking to prove he belongs among the best.

“I think it has gone well, I am starting to feel more comfortable out there,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m just trying to work hard every day, and make an impression, and try and get in the lineup.”

Fitzgerald will have at least one teammate in his corner as he tries to make the NHL roster as Bemidji State alum Matt Read also joins the Wild this year, and Read is pretty impressed with what he’s seen from Fitzgerald so far.

“He has great speed, good hands, and good vision,” Matt Read, Bemidji State Forward from 2007-2011, said. “Obviously, those things go a long way in this league, and it’s good to see another Bemidji State guy in the locker room with us.”

“We kind of talk a little bit about Bemidji, and it’s just great seeing him around the rink, another Bemidji guy,” Fitzgerald said.

Read joins the Wild after seven years with the Philadelphia Flyers, and he’s excited to play for the team he rooted for while in college.

“I get to play in front of my wife’s family, they all live around here, and I have some friends that live around here,” Read said. “It’s a great hockey state, they have good crowds here, and it’s exciting to be here.”

Read and Fitzgerald are trying to make Bemidji State fans very happy by making the NHL roster out of training camp.

Final rosters will be decided before the first game of the season which is scheduled for October 4^th when the Wild travel to Colorado to take on the Avalanche.