The Minnesota Wild have been a bit thin in the goaltending depth department for the last few seasons, so they’ve brought in help from outside in the form of Hungarian goaltender Adam Vay.
Undrafted at the NHL level, Vay – who spent this last month playing for the Hungarian national men’s team for the first time in a few years – stands at a hefty 6 foot 5 and 209 lbs. He also put on a decent showing at the Worlds, despite playing for a clearly overmatched Hungarian squad; through three games, he put up a .910 save percentage and 3.67 goals against on average.
A native of Budapest, Hungary, Vay spent the majority of his development playing in both Slovakia and Russia’s MHL junior league, but isn’t unfamiliar with North American ice. He spent two seasons – the 2013-14 and 2014-15 campaigns – playing in the WSHL with the El Paso Rhinos, where he recorded impressive .936 and .925 save percentages in all situations, respectively.
In his first year of pro hockey this season, Vay managed to record a .926 save percentage over 39 games with MOL Liga club Debreceni HK – and while that’s not the highest quality of pro competition, it combines with his solid numbers at all the levels he’s competed at thus far to suggest this isn’t a hugely reaching prospect for the Wild to sign. The team will likely give him a change to adjust at the minor league level first, but could work his way up the depth chart in coming seasons.
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