The Minnesota Wild are rolling into Montreal with a 12-3-4 record and a first-place spot in the Central Division, but the bigger story Tuesday is who might be coming back.
Minnesota opens a three-game road trip tonight against the Canadiens, and the lineup could look a lot healthier than it has for most of the season. Jared Spurgeon is set to come off injured reserve and play, while Michael McCarron is also expected back for the Wild.
Spurgeon has been out since Oct. 27 with a lower-body injury, missing five games. He has one goal and four assists in 10 games this season. Since he went down, Minnesota has gone 3-0-2.
Michael Russo of The Athletic reported that Spurgeon’s roster spot opens at 1 p.m., when Cameron Crotty and Tyler Pitlick come off the roster after the Wild waived them Monday.
McCarron’s return would give Minnesota another body up front after he left Friday’s 4-1 win over San Jose in the third period with an upper-body injury. He then sat out Saturday before returning to the ice for Monday’s practice. Through 18 games, he has three goals and five assists.
That leaves one more major name in the mix: Brock Faber.
Faber traveled with the team to Montreal and has been practicing since last week, which has kept the door open on a possible debut. If he does play, David Spacek would come out of the lineup. If McCarron is in, Nico Sturm sits.
Russo also noted that if McCarron plays, Sturm comes out.
Jonas Brodin took a maintenance day Monday, but John Hynes has already said Brodin and Quinn Hughes will play.
Faber has missed all 19 of Minnesota’s games this season after taking a shot near his left ear in the final preseason game against Dallas on Sept. 25. A CT scan at Regions Hospital later showed a skull fracture, and he had surgery two days after that.
The 24-year-old Maple Grove native was cleared around Oct. 29 and rejoined practice on Nov. 5. Hynes held him out of the Nov. 6-7 back-to-back and called his debut “a moving target.”
Faber now wears plastic ear guards on his helmet. He said Friday that the injury “could have been a lot worse” if he had been hit harder in that spot or hadn’t gotten the medical attention he did.
Last season, he put up 15 goals and 36 assists in 80 games. He also signed a $68 million contract.
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