Souhan: When you rank the top young athletes in Minnesota sports, there’s a new leader

In June, when Royce Lewis looked like he was incapable of hitting anything less than a grand slam with the game on the line, I ranked the four best major-sport young athletes in Minnesota.

My picks: The Wolves’ Anthony Edwards a half-step ahead of the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, followed by Lewis, then the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov.

Edwards had led the Timberwolves to their greatest victory in franchise history — Game 7 over the defending champion Nuggets in Denver; Jefferson could become one of the greatest players in NFL history; Lewis was making the grand slam look like an everyday occurrence; and Kaprizov, for all of his skill, was muddling through a mediocre Wild season.

It’s time to not only reexamine this ranking, but to expand its parameters.

I picked those four athletes because they were all 26 or younger and playing like stars.

That left the Lynx’s Napheesa Collier off the list. After the year she had — winning defensive player of the year, finishing second in the MVP race, bringing a team with average talent to within a point of the WNBA championship and winning a gold medal — I regret not including her in June.

She’s 28. So the new parameter is local superstars who are 28 or younger.

Here’s my ranking of these five, including a surprise entrant: