With their seventh-round pick traded in a package to the Montreal Canadiens in order to select Josh Pillar of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers in the fourth round, the Minnesota Wild’s final pick of the draft came in the sixth-round at 182nd-overall. With that pick, GM Bill Guerin and crew were able to snag Nate Benoit, a defenseman from the University of North Dakota of the NCAA.
A “tough to play against “defender, Benoit tallied 11 goals and 32 points in 33 games with Mount St. Charles Academy at the high school level.