The Minnesota Wild have promoted multiple positions within their hockey operations staff today, the team announced.
The club hired Dan MacKinnon as Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting, Janik Beichler as a European Amateur Scout, and Elizabeth Hudson as Executive Assistant to the President/GM & Hockey Operations. Along with these announcements, Minnesota promoted Alex Goligoski to Player Development Coach.
Goligoski played 17 seasons in the NHL, his last three with the Wild from 2021 to 2024. As a member of the Wild’s player development staff as an advisor, he specialized in developing defenseman in the organization. He played 1,078 career games with the Penguins (2007-11), winning the 2009 Stanley Cup.
He also played with Dallas (2011-16) and Arizona (2016-21).
Minnesota highlights the hiring of Dan MacKinnon, who spent the last ten seasons with the New Jersey Devils as the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Assistant General Manager since 2019, and formerly as their Senior Director of Player Personnel. In this tenure, Mackinnon saw the development of Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes among the notable draft selections made within his early time with the club.
The ten years before that were also with the current Wild GM Bill Guerin in Pittsburgh. There, MacKinnon was a two-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Penguins as Head Professional Scout (2006-16), Director of Professional Scouting (2006-09), and Director of Player Personnel (2009-16). Before his Pittsburgh days, he spent six years as a Scouting Coordinator (2000-02) and Pro Scout (2002-06) with Nashville.
Minnesota also hired a member of Elite Prospects’ scouting department, Beichler, who specialized in European Scouting, as he was Director of that region for the site. The resident of Düsseldorf, Germany, spent seven years (2019-26) as a European Scout for the Spokane Chiefs in the WHL and three years as a European Scout at FCHockey (2016-19).
Hudson will join the team, assisting Guerin. She formerly worked with the WBS Penguins, the AHL affiliate of Pittsburgh. In Wilkes-Barre, she served as Administrative Coordinator (2022-23) and Manager of Team Operations (2022-24).