Duluth East’s Zane Medlin drafted by Minnesota Wilderness in NAHL Futures round

Zane Medlin’s rise through Duluth East hockey now has another stop on the map. The Minnesota Wilderness took the rising junior in the first round of the NAHL Futures Draft on June 9, giving the Greyhounds forward a second junior-hockey option and another sign that his sophomore season has already traveled well beyond Duluth.

Medlin’s value was easy to see in the box score and in the standings. He finished second on Duluth East in both goals and assists as a sophomore, and he played a major role in the Greyhounds’ run to the Section 7AA semifinal. For a Northland program that has long served as a launch point for college and junior prospects, his selection shows that scouts are still watching the local pipeline closely.

The Futures Draft is built for that kind of early movement. The North American Hockey League says the event is meant to give 16-year-old players junior-hockey exposure and support their path to NCAA hockey. The league says more than 1,500 NAHL alumni have gone on to play in the NCAA, with 50 or more reaching the NHL, a reminder that draft-day attention can become a serious step in the sport’s development ladder.

For Medlin, the Wilderness pick does not stand alone. He was already selected last month by the USHL’s Fargo Force, which means he now has multiple junior tracks to consider as his career develops. The United States Hockey League held its 2026 Phase I Draft on May 4 and Phase II Draft on May 5, and the league describes itself as the world’s leading junior hockey league. Being chosen in both systems suggests Medlin has drawn interest across the two most visible junior routes in the United States.

That matters in Duluth, where high school hockey still serves as a public measure of whether the local system is producing players who can move up. Medlin’s selection is not a one-off curiosity; it points to a broader pattern in which strong performances at Duluth East can still translate into real opportunities with junior organizations. For the Wilderness, it was part of an inaugural Futures Draft class that also included Charlie Barnes and Quinn Beumer.

For Medlin, the immediate result is simpler: more options, more exposure and more decisions ahead. For Duluth East, it is another prospect moving through a pipeline that remains central to the region’s hockey identity.