North Iowa forward Wagner signs NAHL tender
January 31, 2019
Before playing for North Iowa in the NA3HL this season, Carter Wagner began the season with the Minnesota Magicians in the NAHL.
The North Iowa Bulls of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) are proud to announce that forward Carter Wagner has signed a North American Hockey League (NAHL) tender agreement with the Odessa Jackalopes of the NAHL’s South Division. Wagner is the fourth North Iowa Bulls player this season to sign an NAHL tender.
The Lino Lakes, Minnesota native has long been a highly thought of prospect among the junior hockey community. In November of 2017, the Minnesota Magicians signed him to a tender out of Centennial High School in nearby Circle Pines. He led the Cougars to a fourth-place finish in the Minnesota Class AA state tournament last year to finish his prep career, before tallying six points in eight games with the Magicians to start his junior career.
This past May, the USHL’s Cedar Rapids Roughriders chose him with their 15th-round pick in the league’s Phase II entry draft. Wagner played the first half of the year with the Magicians in the NAHL, adding five points in 27 more appearances with A.J. Bucchino’s team.
Wagner played briefly with the Bulls during a mid-January road trip to Alexandria, where he picked up a pair of goals against the Blizzard, including a game-winner. He was called up to Odessa the following week for a road trip to Topeka, but did not appear against the Pilots before returning to North Iowa.
Wagner's tender agreement does not mean an automatic recall to Odessa, but his NAHL playing rights have been committed to the Jackalopes, and he will start the 2019-20 season in Odessa. He will not be eligible for this spring’s NAHL Draft. Any NAHL appearances he makes during the remainder of this season will also be made in an Odessa Jackalopes uniform.
More than 30 North Iowa Bulls players have reached the NAHL since the team’s inaugural season in 2011-12. Three of those players are currently active in NCAA Division I hockey, with several others playing for professional teams.
A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which include one tender exclusively used on players from the NA3HL - plus or minus any trades - which became active on Nov. 1. Tendered players are not eligible for the NAHL draft, which will be held on June 4, 2019.
