Jake Middleton isn’t a household name; in fact, his name nearly went unannounced during the 2014 NHL draft. If he were an NFL football player, he would have been “Mr. Irrelevant”, which is given to those who are selected with the last pick in a given draft. But Middleton’s career has shaped up to be anything but irrelevant, and his role in the Wild’s playoff run became apparent game by game.

Born in Wainwright, Alberta, Middleton and his family moved to Ontario when he was young, settling in Stratford. Excelling as a youth hockey player in the area, there weren’t many players who could steal the limelight away from Middleton. However, it’s hard to be the talk of the town when you’re growing up in the same area as pop legend Justin Bieber, who was on the rise when Middleton’s hockey career first took off.

With all eyes on Bieber’s meteoric rise up the charts, the Owen Sound Attack had its sights set on picking the OHL’s next star blueliner, taking Middleton with their 8th overall selection in the 2012 OHL priority draft.

His time in Owen Sound didn’t last long. They sent him to the Ottawa 67s just 14 games into his first season in junior. From there, Middleton found his footing playing for an Ottawa team that featured Sean Monahan and Cody Ceci, who were both 1st round selections in the NHL draft. A year later, another first-rounder, Travis Konecny, joined Middleton as he headed into his first NHL draft-eligible season.

During that season, the 17-year-old appeared in 65 games for the 67s, becoming a physical force using his tall frame to shut down opposing offences. Middleton wasn’t known for his offensive prowess, but he showed he could offer flashes of offense, recording 21 assists as a primary backend puck mover. 

Come draft night, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Middleton would get chosen. Even after the Los Angeles Kings drafted him 210th overall, he only received a professional tryout with their ECHL club, the Manchester Monarchs. 

For a guy who was first cast away by his junior team, spent time in the GOJHL playing junior B hockey, and had to begin his pro hockey career from the ECHL, Middleton slowly crept his way up the ranks. In 2016, he moved up again, making his AHL debut with the San Jose Barracuda. Then, after 2 years in the minors, he got his first look at the NHL, playing 3 contests with the San Jose Sharks.

It would take three more seasons before he secured his spot on the Sharks’ main roster on a full-time basis. However, not even 50 games into his first full NHL stint, the Sharks traded him to the Minnesota Wild for hot goaltending prospect Kaapo Kahkonen. No one could have guessed that an under-the-radar trade like the deal between the Sharks and the Wild would prove to be pivotal 4 years later.

After an impressive regular season, the Minnesota Wild entered the playoffs with a promising squad. But for those non-Wild fans or casual viewers, Jake Middleton’s name wouldn’t have been mentioned within the reasons for their success, and his play could’ve been considered an afterthought. 

That was until veteran Jonas Brodin went down with an injury, forcing the Wild to change their look on the back end. It was Middleton who was thrust into an uncommon role, logging over 20 minutes a night with Brodin out of the lineup. Middleton didn’t have a perfect showing, and there were plenty of critics who dissected his play in the postseason. Still, filling a void as big as the one Brodin left isn’t something that every defender can take on. 

Coined as merely irrelevant on draft night, Jake Middleton’s path through the minors and into a featured shutdown role in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs proves that regardless of what you’re viewed as on draft night, there’s no telling how important you could become down the road. And who knows…. maybe you’ll be called upon to fill the shoes of a premier shutdown defender in the biggest of games.

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