The Minnesota Wild haven’t even gotten deep into the season, and the injury list already looks like it belongs to January, not the early stretch of the schedule.
Before the regular season began, they were already dealing with Filip Gustavsson, who is recovering from offseason hip surgery, and Brock Faber, who is working his way back from a skull fracture suffered in the preseason after a puck hit him in the head near his ear. Once games started counting, the hits kept coming.
Zach Bogosian and Olli Määttä each missed a game with separate injuries, Marcus and Nick Foligno have both been sidelined for four games, and the Folignos are on injured reserve. The newest name is Nico Sturm, who was hit near the ear by a puck like Faber was, though the length of his absence had not been stated at the time of this article.
Jared Spurgeon and Määttä also didn’t dress for the last game.
Even with that kind of turnover, the Wild have found ways to patch the lineup together, and a big reason is the young players they’ve been able to call on. Tyler Pitlick, Rieger Lorenz, David Špaček, and others have stepped into roles and handled them well enough to keep things moving. Not every call-up gets a long runway, since injured players sometimes come back quickly, but they’ve still managed to leave an impression.
Lorenz has been the most noticeable of the group. He’s blended into the lineup smoothly and has shown plenty of confidence with the puck.
The expectation is that, once Minnesota gets healthier, he’ll likely head back to the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League, since there’s still more development ahead for him. But until that happens, the Wild are clearly comfortable leaning on him.
Pitlick and Špaček have also done their part. Pitlick has appeared in just two games, but he made his presence felt with 11 hits and three shots on goal in about 15 minutes of ice time.
Špaček has played four games on defense and already logged four hits and five blocked shots. When injuries start stacking up, those are the kinds of contributions that keep a team afloat.
Minnesota’s lineup shuffling hasn’t been limited to the young players, either. The injury situation has pushed the Wild into new combinations, and the top line now features Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy.
So far, that mix has worked well, even though the Wild generally like to spread talent throughout the lineup. How long they keep that trio together will be worth watching.
Maxim Shabanov has also found a strong connection with Kaprizov, but he’s shown he can adjust in other spots too. He’s also clicked with Ryan Hartman and with whichever linemates he’s paired with, including his other Russian teammates. That flexibility has mattered, because Minnesota’s regulars have had to keep adapting as bodies come and go.
That’s been the central theme here: adjust, absorb, keep going. It’s not easy for a team to lose multiple players at once, but so far the Wild haven’t let the injuries wreck their rhythm. Their special teams have stayed on track, and when there have been rough patches, they’ve been short-lived.
The bigger concern is how long the full-time group can keep carrying extra weight if the injury pile keeps growing. At some point, the lineup gets stretched thin.
For now, though, Minnesota is still holding together, and with any luck, the next wave will be players returning rather than more going down. Spurgeon and Määttä, at least, seem likely to be out for a shorter period of time.
In Other News...
Wild Make Another Roster Move After Key Injury Absence
The Wilds roster shuffle continued with a pair of recalls from Iowa, bringing up forward Hunter Haight and defenseman Carson Lambos as Minnesota adjusts to the latest disruption on the blue line and up front. The moves come with the club still trying to keep its depth intact while navigating an injury situation that has forced the front office to tap further into the organization.
Jared Spurgeon landing on Injured Reserve is the latest reminder of how quickly the picture can change for Minnesota, especially with a veteran defenseman out of the mix. Down in the minors, the ripple effect reached the Iowa Wild too, as they brought in defenseman Reilly Webb from the Jacksonville Icemen, another sign of how the organization is trying to stay covered at every level. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Still Facing A Roster Squeeze Around Jared Spurgeon
Jared Spurgeons return to practice was an encouraging sign for the Wild, but it did not mean he was ready to jump right back into the lineup. Minnesota placed the defenseman on injured reserve retroactively, a move that keeps the door open for him to come back as soon as the teams next game in Edmonton while the club managed its immediate roster situation against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
To cover the short-term gap, the Wild brought up forward Hunter Haight and defenseman Carson Lambos from Iowa, giving the team some extra insurance as it works through the stretch without Spurgeon. It is a familiar kind of squeeze for a team trying to stay afloat in the standings while also keeping one eye on when a key veteran can be cleared for game action. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Blue Line Suddenly Faces A Bigger Jared Spurgeon Concern
Jared Spurgeons latest absence has pushed the Wilds blue line into a more unsettled spot, with general manager Bill Guerin moving the captain to injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 12. The move formalizes what has already been a recent concern for Minnesota, as Spurgeon has been out with an upper-body injury while still producing one goal and four assists early in the season.
Minnesota responded by recalling defensemen Carson Lambos and Hunter Haight from the Iowa Wild, a sign that the team needed additional bodies on the back end while Spurgeon remains unavailable. For a group that leans heavily on its captain's steadiness and experience, the timing makes the injury feel a little more significant, even if the club is still waiting for a clearer sense of the longer-term picture. [Read more 🡒]