A walk on the Wilde side
It is a story, complete with headline, that I have been waiting to write for quite a while: Bode takes a walk on the Wilde side to Saginaw.
Now, two years after selecting him in the second round of the 2016 Ontario Hockey League draft, Saginaw Spirit is poised to sign 6-foot-2, 195-pound, right-handed shooting defenseman Bode Wilde, Hockey News North has confirmed.
The big defender, who is slated to be a second round pick at the upcoming, 2018 National Hockey League draft, has spent the past two seasons with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. Wilde had a previous commitment to play at the Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association level for the University of Michigan Wolverines but now appears destined for Saginaw and the OHL.
Wilde, who has a 2000 birth date, was taken by shrewd Saginaw general manager Dave Drinkill in the same 2016 OHL draft in which the Spirit selected left winger Blade Jenkins in the first round.
Jenkins played a year alongside Wilde with the National Team Development Program before signing with Saginaw prior to the 2017-2018 season. After a slow start in Saginaw, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Jenkins progressed to score 20 goals, 24 assists, 44 points in 68 regular season games with the OHL Spirit.
Saginaw boasts some of the best young talent in the entire OHL and after an eighth-place finish and a playoff spot in 2017-2018, is seen as a Spirit rising in the Western Conference for 2018-2019 and beyond.
PHOTO: Bode Wilde, as a member of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.