Minnesota recalled forward Hunter Haight and defenseman Matt Kiersted from the Iowa Wild on April 13, giving both players another shot with the NHL club before a game that night at St. Louis.
Haight, 22, made his NHL debut on Oct. 9 in St. Louis and has one assist in seven games with Minnesota this season. He also picked up his first career NHL point on March 19, when he assisted against Chicago. Wearing No. 37 for the Wild, Haight has produced 32 points, including 18 goals, six power-play goals and 108 shots on goal in 51 games with Iowa this season and represented the affiliate at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic.
The recall matters because Haight has spent the 2025-26 season moving between Minnesota and Iowa, the organization’s AHL affiliate, and the team is again turning to him with the schedule heading straight into a road game against the St. Louis Blues at 7 p.m. CT Monday. Minnesota drafted him in the second round, 47th overall, in 2022, and he arrives with a brief but already eventful NHL record after last fall’s debut and his first point in March.
Kiersted, who wears No. 26, also returned after splitting time between Minnesota and Iowa this season. He has one assist in four games with the Wild and 12 points, 115 shots on goal and 38 penalty minutes in 49 games with Iowa. Signed by Minnesota as a free agent on July 2, 2025, he has eight points in 43 career NHL games and 97 points in 282 career AHL games with Charlotte and Iowa.
The two recalls give Minnesota more depth for a late-season stretch that has already pulled from the same system all year. Haight’s rise has been steady rather than sudden: 34 points in 67 games in his first season with Iowa last year, then 66 points in 118 games over two seasons in the minors. The next test comes quickly, on the ice in St. Louis, where his NHL career began and where the Wild go back Monday night.
