The Minnesota Wilderness of the NAHL drafted Seregély in the 4th round of the 2019 NAHL Entry draft. The team used their first round pick on a goalie and traded their second and third round picks, in the 4th round they had two picks, with the first one they drafted a forward and with the second one they took Máté Seregély.
“This is all strange and surprising for me, I was not expecting this but I am also very happy. This is strange in a good way, this is not something that happens to someone everyday” said Seregély about his feelings with being drafted.
Seregély is not the first Hungarian to play in the NAHL as Ákos Kiss had played for the Fairbanks Icedogs, Nilan Nagy for the Traverse City North Stars, Krisztián Nagy spent time with the Minot Minotauros, with Zsombor Garát being drafted 11th overall by the Austin Bruins in 2016. Two other Hungarians who played in the NAHL are Huba Székessy who was born in Germany and Olivér Takácsi-Nagy who was born in the United States. The NAHL is the second highest junior league in the United States behind the USHL. A number of players have made it to the NAHL from the league such as Doug Weight, Brian Rolston, Brian Holzinger, Brian Rafalski, Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel.
“The team has already gotten in contact with me, they right now are busy with the draft so in one or two days they will send me everything in an email and after that everything will be taken care of” said Seregély with regards to what will happen next.
Seregély spent last week in a tryout camp with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL, the same team that Kevin Wehrs and Bence Stipsicz played for. The Minnesota WIlderness had scouts at the camp and liked what they saw from Seregély.
Seregély was born in 2000 and has two more seasons of eligibility in North American junior system. The step after that would be to play NCAA hockey for him. “If all goes will, for me the next step will be to play in the NCAA” said Seregély for his future plans. Playing in North America will not be unfamiliar for Seregély as he spent the 2017-18 season at the Ontario Hockey Academy.
Máté has represented Hungary at both the U18 and U20 World Championships. This past season he played for Vasas in the ERSTE Liga and the MAC Budapest U20 team. Seregély is the older brother of Míra Seregély, member of the Hungarian women’s national team that won promotion to next years A-Pool World Championships.
