Nick Foligno

Nick Foligno, a left winger for the Minnesota Wild, was born on October 31, 1987. The Ottawa Senators picked him 28th overall in the first round of the 2006 NHL entry draft, and six years later they traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets. His father, Mike Foligno, played over 1,000 NHL games, and his brother Marcus is now his teammate on the Wild.

As a kid, Foligno played in the 2000 and 2001 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a team from Hershey, Pennsylvania. He started the 2003–04 season with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program’s under-17 team, putting up seven goals and 16 points. Moving up to the under-18 team in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), he scored eight goals and 20 points in 43 games, plus two goals and three points in seven playoff contests. In four games with the under-18 team the next season, he had two goals and an assist.

After that, Foligno joined the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), coached by his father. In his rookie year (2004–05), he notched ten goals and 38 points in 65 games. His first OHL game came on September 24, 2004, a 3–1 win over the Ottawa 67’s where he went scoreless. He got his first OHL assist two days later in a 6–1 win against the Erie Otters, and scored his first OHL goal on November 20, 2004, beating Kitchener Rangers goalie Dan Turple in a 6–3 loss. During the playoffs, he had five goals and ten points in 12 games before Sudbury fell to the Ottawa 67’s in the second round.

His offensive numbers jumped in 2005–06, leading the Wolves with 70 points (24 goals, 46 assists) and 146 penalty minutes. In ten playoff games, he managed one goal and four points as Sudbury was swept by the Peterborough Petes in the second round. Returning for a third season in 2006–07, he scored a team-high 31 goals and 88 points in 66 games. In the postseason, he tallied 12 goals and 29 points in 21 games, the second-highest point total in the league, but the Wolves lost to the Plymouth Whalers in six games in the J. Ross Robertson Cup finals.

The Senators signed Foligno to a three-year entry-level contract on March 21, 2007. He split the 2007–08 season between Ottawa and the AHL’s Binghamton Senators. In 28 AHL games, he had six goals and 19 points, getting his first AHL assist in his debut on November 16, 2007, and his first AHL goal on January 18, 2008.