Longtime Raiders' defenseman Landon Kosior is off to the professional ranks in Iowa. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Kosior Goes Pro

Raiders standout Kosior going pro with Iowa Wild

Mar 30, 2023 | 2:34 PM

Landon Kosior was the MVP and top defenseman of the Prince Albert Raiders this past season, leading the team in points per game while still facing the toughest matchups each and every night. It was the kind of effort over a season that deserved to be noticed.

And as it turns out, someone did.

The longtime Raiders’ blueliner has signed an AHL amateur tryout contract or ATO with the Iowa Wild, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The 20-year-old rearguard will wear number 44 with Iowa.

In his fourth and final season of junior hockey, all of them with the Raiders, Kosior was the team’s rock on the back end, posting 17 goals and 63 points in 60 games. He scored three shorthanded goals to lead the team in that department as well.

His 17 goals were tied for 6^th among all defensemen in the league, and with 18 goals the previous season it marked the second year in a row he’d been in the top-six for goals by a blueliner. Kosior also finished the year with a rating of +3.

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In a fitting final act of his WHL career, Kosior’s final game saw him put up an assist at even strength while matching up against Connor Bedard, keeping the phenom off the scoresheet until late in the third period in a 5-3 Raiders win.

Undrafted into the WHL, Kosior nonetheless played 213 games in the league after signing with the Raiders. Also passed over in the NHL draft, Kosior will nonetheless now join the professional ranks.

In an odd twist, Kosior’s ATO comes the day after former Raider Brayden Pachal was recalled to the NHL by the Vegas Golden Knights. As Raiders’ GM Curtis Hunt tells it, Pachal was an advocate of the team signing Kosior originally. Like Kosior, the bruising blueliner was undrafted in the NHL but joined the Golden Knights organization on an ATO of his own in 2019.

According to a release by the Wild, Kosior will wear number 44 with the team. The Wild’s next game comes on April 1 against the San Diego Gulls in Des Moines.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP