{"id":553754,"date":"2026-04-16T09:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:39:26","slug":"wisconsin-hockey-captain-earns-one-year-entry-level-nhl-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/553754\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin hockey captain earns one-year entry-level NHL contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/badgerswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Wisconsin Badgers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Wisconsin Badgers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Wisconsin Badgers<\/a> men&#8217;s hockey captain Ben Dexheimer has signed a one-year entry-level contract <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mnwild\/status\/2044507473298518455?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:with the Minnesota Wild;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;with the Minnesota Wild&quot;}\" class=\"link \">with the Minnesota Wild<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The defenseman&#8217;s name has been tied to Wisconsin hockey for quite some time as he now looks to do some damage on an NHL franchise that has yet again punched its ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Badgers fans should know this contract doesn&#8217;t start until the beginning of the 2026-27 season, so it&#8217;s not like Dexheimer will be on the ice for their first round matchup against the Dallas Stars.<\/p>\n<p>Dexheimer&#8217;s age is the reason his contract was only for one year, not two, like the one that fellow teammate Quinn Finley signed <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NYIslanders\/status\/2044472939463020652?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:with the New York Islanders;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;with the New York Islanders&quot;}\" class=\"link \">with the New York Islanders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the four-year Badgers defenseman has a ton to bring to the table. Throughout his career in Madison, he collected 84 points and blocked 192 shots in a 149-game sample size.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/wild\/news\/minnesota-wild-signs-defenseman-ben-dexheimer-and-forward-rieger-lorenz-to-entry-level-contracts-041526\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Wild also announced;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The Wild also announced&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The Wild also announced<\/a> they&#8217;d be signing Rieger Lorenz, a star Denver player who recorded one of the Pioneers&#8217; two goals against the Badgers in the National Championship game.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Contact\/Follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebadgerswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@TheBadgersWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;@TheBadgersWire&quot;}\" class=\"link \">@TheBadgersWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/badgerswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/badgerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/badgers\/hockey\/2026\/04\/16\/wisconsin-ben-dexheimer-minnesota-wild\/89632598007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Wisconsin defenseman Ben Dexheimer signs with NHL&#039;s Minnesota Wild;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Wisconsin defenseman Ben Dexheimer signs with NHL&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Wisconsin defenseman Ben Dexheimer signs with NHL&#8217;s Minnesota Wild<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Badgers men&#8217;s hockey captain Ben Dexheimer has signed a one-year entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[62644,147,2881,62645,5,38,159,6552],"class_list":{"0":"post-553754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-ben-dexheimer","9":"tag-dallas-stars","10":"tag-defenseman","11":"tag-dexheimer","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-minnesota-wild","14":"tag-new-york-islanders","15":"tag-wisconsin-badgers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116413724422292123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}