The clock keeps ticking on Mario Lucia’s professional hockey career after being drafted out of Wayzata High School/US National Development Team by GMCF and friends back in 2011. Since Fletcher became GM, only two of his eleven draft picks out of high school have seen NHL minutes: Nick Leddy (Eden Prairie, never with the Wild) and Erik Haula (Shattuck, now with Vegas). Can Mario be the third? Either way, he comes in at #10, up three spots after spending 2015 and 2016 as “lucky” #13...
Deciding to shed the shroud of nepotism, Lucia decided to blaze his own trail and attend the University of Notre Dame after spending a year playing juniors in BC (he was teammates with Mike Reilly in Pentiction).