\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 17, 2026<\/p>\n
“My journey hasn’t exactly been linear,” said Shaw.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mason Shaw’s professional debut came with the Iowa Wild on Apr. 10, 2018, against the Rockford IceHogs. Just over eight years later, he\u00a0returns\u00a0to the Minnesota Wild organization\u00a0as\u00a0a much different person and player than when he broke into the AHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I just remember being a fresh 19-year-old kid, not knowing much about living on my own or living in a different country,” said Shaw. “There’s been some setbacks and then some tough injuries that really made me dig in and battle adversity.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shaw kicked off his professional career as a member of\u00a0two\u00a0of the\u00a0most successful teams in Iowa Wild history. The young forward was surrounded by experienced, skilled players who showed him the ropes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My\u00a0roommate in my first year was Carson Soucy, who’s\u00a0from my hometown,” said Shaw. “Those teams were\u00a0very competitive.\u00a0When you’re 19\u00a0or 20 years old, you pay attention to\u00a0all the older guys\u00a0and learn things from them.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the things\u00a0Shaw\u00a0learned\u00a0quickly about succeeding at the\u00a0professional level was the need to adapt his game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As a pro,\u00a0you aren’t\u00a0playing half the game and skating\u00a0on the power play for the whole two minutes,” said Shaw. ” I’ve been able to have success at the American League level by helping produce, learning how to kill penalties, being a good two-way player.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite being a smaller player, Shaw has never shied away from the physical side of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Everybody wants to be a professional hockey player when you grow up, but you physically have to be there and mentally want to be there,” said Shaw. “I flourished in gritty, intense games. Sometimes, it could be easier to go around a guy, but you’ve got to go through a guy. I think that that’s something I just always relish.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shaw’s approach endeared him to fans, teammates, and coaches, but also exposed him to injury potential. He suffered four ACL tears during his first tenure with Minnesota and Iowa, but says he gained perspective as he battled back from each one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“People face adversities one way or the other, whether it’s injuries or\u00a0in life matters,” said Shaw.\u00a0“I think building calluses over your career definitely helps you, especially when things aren’t going your way. In a sense, I think I’m also a bit of an outlier with how many times that I’ve had to go through these cycles of some knee injuries.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
While each injury came with different challenges, Shaw was able to lean on previous experience with rehabilitation to believe in his ability to return to play,\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You\u00a0look yourself in the mirror and dig in and realize that this is something you can get through,” said Shaw. “There were certainly points in my career\u00a0where people would have understood if I wanted to hang up my skates.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shaw says he always\u00a0maintained an\u00a0inner belief that he\u00a0could not only play but\u00a0reach the highest level, a feeling that fuels him every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m in a position where I’m feeling as healthy as I have in a long time,” said Shaw. “I’m really excited to see what I can do with that, just\u00a0based\u00a0off how I feel.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering the offseason, Shaw wanted an opportunity to show what he is still capable of\u00a0and hoped a return to\u00a0the Minnesota Wild organization\u00a0would be possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When your contract expires and you’re\u00a0trying to make a decision on where you’re going,\u00a0you hope for something like that but can’t be sure until it’s done,” said Shaw.\u00a0“For me, the opportunity to come back\u00a0was a no-brainer, so I was\u00a0very excited to be able to get it all figured out.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout every stage of his career, Shaw has\u00a0been a leader. He served as an alternate captain for Iowa during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons before being named captain for a 2022-23 season in which most of his time was spent in the NHL.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think it’s kind of always been a natural progression,” said Shaw.\u00a0“More than anything, I’ve always embraced the\u00a0day-to-day grind. My style with leadership is just leading by example. I’m not afraid to pick up when I have to.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The transition back to the organization has been a natural one, with Shaw jumping right back into a sea of\u00a0new and familiar faces.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m excited to reconnect with everyone,” said Shaw.\u00a0“It’s been fun to meet new players and also\u00a0see\u00a0guys that I haven’t seen for a few years. I’m\u00a0super grateful to be back with\u00a0the\u00a0organization that gave me a shot of pro hockey. I’ll do my best to put my best foot forward and try to reward these guys\u00a0that gave\u00a0me a chance again.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iowa opens training camp on Sept. 21 in Minnesota, and there is a chance that Shaw will join the team ahead of or during the 2026-27 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I have great memories of making the playoffs and having good crowds,” said Shaw.\u00a0“The way of life in Des Moines is relative to the style that I like.\u00a0It’s a\u00a0community that’s backed by agriculture, which relates to my background of where I came from. I feel like I can relate to a lot of people in the state, and\u00a0I’ve made friends away from the rink that I’m excited to connect with again as well.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sep 17, 2026 “My journey hasn’t exactly been linear,” said Shaw.\u00a0\u00a0 Mason Shaw’s professional debut came with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[401,8559,1928,5,8558,12263,161,38,5280,4,9960,43,162],"class_list":["post-665202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-ahl","tag-des-moines","tag-entertainment","tag-hockey","tag-iowa","tag-mason","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-nhl","tag-shaw","tag-sports","tag-wild"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117290497702994218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665202","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=665202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}