Wild's Luke Kunin weighing decision to leave Wisconsin to turn pro

As you know, the University of Wisconsin's solid first season under Tony Granato ended Saturday when beaten in double overtime by Penn State in the Big Ten championship game at Joe Louis Arena.

That also ended 2016 Wild first-round pick Luke Kunin's sophomore season.

Now, the big question? Does it end Kunin's college career.

My opinion hasn't changed since before the talented St. Louis-area prospect captained the United States to gold at the world junior championships in January.

I think he turns pro any day now.

I talked to his advisor, Brett Peterson, this afternoon, and Peterson said the Wild's currently giving Kunin, drafted 15th overall last June, his space to let him decompress from a long, hard season that ended disappointedly.

Peterson said there's no timetable for Kunin to make a decision as to whether he'll sign with the Wild or return for his junior year. He gave no indication as to which way Kunin's leaning, but I've talked to loads of people over the past several months -- and two days -- that know Kunin well and expect him to turn pro.

There really isn't any rush because unless something changed in the past couple days, the Wild has always indicated that if Kunin was ready to turn pro, his three-year, entry-level contract would start next season and he'd likely join Iowa for the rest of the season on an amateur tryout.

Even though there isn't any timetable, I'd think he makes a decision sooner than later, so maybe in a day or handful of days just to get some games in with Iowa.

Kunin, 19, the first sophomore to captain the Badgers in 41 years, was the second-youngest college hockey player in the country in 2015-16 as a 17-year-old. He ended up with 19 goals and 32 points in 34 games for the eight-win Badgers. The 19 goals were tied for third in the nation behind Michigan's Kyle Connor and North Dakota's Brock Boeser.

This past season, he led the Badgers with 22 goals and 38 points in 35 games.

The Wild had today off. I talked to goalie coach Bob Mason this morning about Devan Dubnyk's play lately.

Here's that story, and the statistics between pre-Dec. 27 and post-Dec. 29 are alarming.

I'll be on KFAN in studio at 9 a.m. Tuesday and on the NHL Network in a few minutes.