NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Though the final game of the regular season has no impact on where the Wild finish — they are locked into the No. 3 spot in the Central Division no matter what — it still has a lot of meaning to prospects Nick Swaney and Damien Giroux.
Both players were recently called up from the minors and will make their NHL debuts on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville when the Wild play the Predators.
Asked about their emotions leading up to the game, Swaney and Giroux both called it a dream come true. They were penciled in to play together on the same line.
“They’re ready,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “They’re up (with the big-league club) because we want to have a good look at them.”
The paths to get to this point for Swaney and Giroux are rather different.
After starring for Lakeville South High School, Swaney was selected by the Wild in the seventh round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He played collegiate at Minnesota Duluth, helping the Bulldogs win back-to-back national championships before turning pro.
In total, Swaney has played 114 games with the Iowa Wild, developing into an integral part of their success. He got the call from Iowa coach Tim Army earlier this week letting him know that he would be getting called up.
“I was getting ready to go to sleep,” Swaney said. “It woke me up, and tough to fall asleep after that.”
After calling his parents to celebrate, Swaney packed his bags and headed to the Twin Cities. He flew with the Wild on the team charter to Nashville and was expecting his parents Matt and Amy, his sister Kaitlyn, and his fiancee Emily, among others, to be in attendance for his NHL debut.
Giroux played for the Saginaw Spirit in the Ontario Hockey League before being selected by the Wild in the fifth round of the 2018 NHL Drat. He has played 147 career games with the Iowa Wild, including the final game of the regular season on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
That made for an eventful 12 hours as Giroux took a car service from Des Moines to St. Paul on Wednesday night, then flew from the Twin Cities to Nashville on Thursday morning. He landed around 9:30 a.m. and made it to the rink in time for morning skate.
“It was a rush trying to get to the airport and get here this morning,” Giroux said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to tonight.”
The only issue with Giroux finding out about his NHL debut so last minute was that his parents Daniel and Claudette couldn’t find any flights from their hometown in Sudbury, Ontario. They decided instead to make the 16-hour drive, picking up Giroux’s brother Zach on the way down.
“I’m super thankful to have a family I can lean on like that,” Giroux said. “To have them in the building is going to be something that I’m really going to treasure.”
