In Minnesota, we take pride in watching our hometown heroes as they progress from youth hockey to high school to college and onto the professional ranks. Thankfully, there's no shortage of players to keep an eye on. 

It seems no matter what team shows up at Xcel Energy Center to play the Wild, there’s a Minnesota native playing for the visitors. In fact, did you know Minnesota has more NHLers than every country other than Canada, the US and Sweden? Last year, 43 Minnesotans played for an NHL team and we hope to see that number increase this year.

For that reason, we decided to take a closer look at when Minnesotans currently playing on other NHL teams who are scheduled to face off against the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center this coming season. 

The schedule below lists all of the Wild home games that will feature a State of Hockey native.  Several Minnesotans were not included because they currently play for the Wild (Parise, Carter, Prosser, Schroeder, Reilly & Bickel) or are currently free agents (Cullen, Leopold, etc.).