{"id":791486,"date":"2026-07-29T14:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791486\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:39:09","slug":"carson-lambos-is-running-out-of-time-to-break-in-with-the-wild-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791486\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Lambos Is Running Out Of Time To Break In With the Wild – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEarlier this month, Carson Lambos<\/a> signed<\/a> a one-year two-way contract extension with the Minnesota Wild.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLambos is one of Minnesota\u2019s most interesting first-round picks. The Wild took him in the first round of the 2021 draft, but he has yet to break into the NHL and mostly<\/a> has played in Iowa. However, Lambos turns 24 years old this season, making it seem like a make-or-break year for the blueliner.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Lambos hasn\u2019t established himself in the NHL, he has made progress<\/a>. He played his first NHL game last season and registered a shot on goal and was a plus-one in 10 minutes of ice time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLambos\u2019 brief NHL appearance came in a year when he also continued to show improvement in the AHL. The defender scored a career-high 8 goals and registered a minus-4 rating. Multiple factors influence plus\/minus, but Lambos stayed relatively even on an Iowa Wild team that recorded a -47 goal differential, which is encouraging.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThose improvements were enough for the Wild to sign Lambos this offseason. They must see something in him, or they could have just not qualified him and let him enter unrestricted free agency. Despite seeing the value in Lambos, Minnesota also seems to have reservations.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the Wild faced significant injuries to its blueline last season, they relied more on Matt Kiersted<\/a>, who played six NHL games.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s troubling that the team doesn\u2019t yet trust Lambos to play, even in extremely limited circumstances. He\u2019s still young, but of the eight defenders drafted in the 2021 draft, Lambos is one of only two who have played fewer than 10 NHL games.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Lambos isn\u2019t ready this upcoming season, it may be time for him and the organization to part ways. Even if Lambos continues to improve, he may have trouble finding playing time in Minnesota.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLambos is a left-handed defender who plays on the left side. The Wild are fairly set on the left side because they have Quinn Hughes<\/a> and Jared Spurgeon<\/a>. Those two players solidify the top two spots, but the competition for the final spot on the left will be fierce.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota is bringing back<\/a> Daemon Hunt<\/a>, who played 32 games for the Wild last year. In addition to Hunt\u2019s return, they traded for<\/a> Olli Maatta<\/a>, who has 804 games of NHL experience. It\u2019s safe to assume they will compete to play on the left side of the third pair.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the veteran competition, Minnesota has also done a lot recently to build the depth on the left side of the blue line. The Wild signed<\/a> Viking Gustafsson Nyberg<\/a> and Ben Dexheimer as college free agents last season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGustafsson Nyberg already played two games for the Wild last season, and he and Dexheimer have qualities that make them interesting prospects.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGustafsson Nyberg is a towering presence at 6-foot-6, 225 lbs. He plays a physical and defense-first game that Lambos has also played in the AHL. The Wild\u2019s left side is fairly small with Hughes and Spurgeon. If the team wanted to add size to the lineup, Gustafsson Nyberg could be the preferred option over Lambos.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Dexheimer is a smaller two-way defenseman who people have compared to Jared Spurgeon. Dexheimer\u2019s playstyle, similar to the Wild\u2019s captain, could make him a natural fit<\/a> for Minnesota\u2019s system, which is already built to accommodate that player archetype.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith exciting prospects in the pipeline and established veterans in the NHL, it will be a battle for Lambos to hold onto his spot in the organization, let alone advance.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, there are some opportunities for Lambos. Jared Spurgeon and Olli Maatta have faced some injury issues in recent years. If that happens again, there should be at least a few games available.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Lambos plays well enough in preseason and for the Iowa Wild, he could take some of those minutes. With the current landscape, it\u2019s highly unlikely he\u2019ll be a full-time NHLer this season, but he needs to make some progress.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, progress won\u2019t be enough for the blueliner this season. Lambos finds himself in an organization with established veterans and new competition. If he can’t force his way into the conversation this year, he risks becoming the odd man out.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we’ll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, Carson Lambos signed a one-year two-way contract extension with the Minnesota Wild. Lambos is one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[336439,4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-791486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-carson-lambos","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}