Pitlick Transfers from Minnesota to Mankato

Minneapolis, Minn. — It’s a rare opportunity for drafted hockey players to decide where they want to start their professional hockey career, but the chance presented itself to forward Rhett Pitlick and he took it…. well kind of. The Montreal Canadiens owned Pitlick’s rights after selecting him in the fifth round of the 2019 NHL draft, but Pitlick unenrolled from the University of Minnesota after the spring semester to become an unrestricted free agent on August 15, 2024 as part of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. Pitlick ended up not signing a contract anywhere professionally and Minnesota State annouced that the forward decided to play in Mankato for the 2024-25 season.

“We are excited to add Rhett to our team and program,”  Minnesota State Head Coach Luke Strand said in a release. “His game-breaking ability and experience will complement our forward group and team well.”

Pitlick shined with the puck on his stick with the Gophers, he tied for the team lead in scoring during his junior season with a career high 19 goals and 17 assists in 39 games. He was named All-Big Ten Second Team and often scored in bunches leading the team with 11 multi-point games. Pitlick majored in business and marketing, was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and was a two time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.

Pitlick was a legacy player for the Gophers, following the path of his father Lance Pitlick who played for Minnesota from 1986 to 1990 and his mother Lisa (Wittwer) Pitlick was a two-time Big Ten champion gymnast at the university. His brother Rem Pitlick also played in Dinkytown from 2016 to 2019. During 109 games with the Gophers, Rhett scored 35 goals and 44 assists and during his junior year he was also relied on to kill penalties.

Rhett’s offensive talent improved each season and he scored some memorable goals for the maroon and gold. His most spectacular goal likely was one against Michigan in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament where Wolverine defenseman Steven Holtz couldn’t keep pace with No. 77’s puck skills.

There was another spectacular play at the Frozen Four in Tampa, when he and Aaron Huglen combined for a go-ahead goal that replicated a play by Sidney Crosby the pair had talked about before the game.

And there was the time he scored against North Dakota to put Minnesota up 2-0, but was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for throwing his stick into the crowd as part of his goal celebration. The stick throwing cele was something a few NHL players had been doing after scoring overtime game-winners, but doing it in the middle of the second period was a no-no. The Fighting Hawks came back in that game with four straight goals to close out the period, the Gophers forced overtime by tying the score 4-4, but eventually lost the game in 3-on-3 overtime.

Pitlick sometimes made fans cover their face with the decisions he’d make with the puck, but he also would have them shaking their heads in disbelief with what he could pull off with the puck. “Behind the doors it’s kind of what you see is what you get with Rhett,” said teammate Mason Nevers during the 2023-24 season. “[But on the ice] he’s kind of like a spider monkey… he’s always buzzing around, flying.”

The path to being a UFA for a drafted player right out of college isn’t a common one, but it’s one that’s been taken by Blake Wheeler who was passed aside by the Arizona Coyotes despite being a fifth overall pick in 2004 and ended up signing with Boston Bruins. Wheeler now has 1172 games played over 16 seasons in the NHL.

Other players who have either been cast aside or spurned the teams that drafted them include Kevin Hayes and Jimmy Vesey who signed deals with the New York Rangers and then players like Adam Fox and Cutter Gauthier who forced trades by threatening to pursue become UFAs.

In an article in The Athletic by Arthur Staple and Jeremy Rutherford, Hayes was quoted as saying, “Look at it this way: You play your whole life to get to the NHL and then, all of a sudden, you have a chance to become a free agent and you pick the best situation for you, that’s how I looked at it. I’m sure Chicago fans probably look at me a certain way, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. I wasn’t going to become a free agent until I was 27 years old, and I got to become a free agent at 20. I think it’s blown out of proportion by the fans that you do it to. But yeah, I don’t think I would’ve made it to the NHL as quickly as I did.”

While Pitlick could have returned to Minnesota for the 2024-25 season, it was apparent that both parties decided to move in separate directions after Pitlick unenrolled from school. Down the stretch at times during last season Pitlick was benched for his decision making on the ice and he didn’t see much ice time at the end of the Sioux Falls Regional Final.

Gophers Head Coach Bob Motzko shared during the Minnesota State Fair that all signs were pointing to Pitlick turning pro, ‘I let the players follow their heart…” said Motzko. “I didn’t re-recruit Brock Faber, Jackson LaCombe or Logan Cooley and Rhett is a very mature young man.”

The Gophers have nine returning forwards on the roster (Huglen, Kurth, Moore, Lamb, Nevers, Mittelstadt, Clark, Snuggerud, Michel) four incoming freshmen (Falloon, Hendrickson, Påhlsson, Ziemer) and one transfer (Wood).