The Minnesota Wild’s injury luck has gone from bad to brutal, and now it has reached captain Jared Spurgeon.
Spurgeon was ruled out roughly 30 minutes before puck drop Tuesday in Winnipeg, with Minnesota announcing that he would not face the Jets because of a previously undisclosed upper-body injury. The team did not offer a timeline.
That adds another hit to a roster that has already been hammered early this season. Brock Faber went down with a fractured skull before the year even began, and Filip Gustavsson, Nick Foligno and Marcus Foligno have all since landed on injured reserve.
Then Monday night, in Minnesota’s 4-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, Nico Sturm absorbed a Jared Spurgeon shot to the head in the first period and needed help getting off the ice. His short- or long-term status still hasn’t been updated.
Spurgeon’s issue apparently traces back to that Vegas game as well. Dylan Loucks of The Hockey News reported that Spurgeon took a hit in the third period against the Golden Knights on the same shift Jonas Brodin took a puck off the hand.
According to Loucks, assistant athletic trainer Travis Green checked on Brodin at the bench, then moved over to examine Spurgeon’s shoulder. Spurgeon finished the game and even took his next shift, but the 36-year-old reportedly woke up Tuesday still feeling the effects.
Even with the injury, Spurgeon handled a heavy workload Monday. He played 23:32, logged 4:56 on the penalty kill and blocked three shots. Through six games, he has a goal, four assists and a plus-4 rating.
Minnesota’s lineup against Winnipeg reflected the hit to the blue line. Keeping both Matt Kiersted and David Spacek on the roster after Sturm’s injury now looks like a smart bit of insurance.
Against the Jets, Brodin moved up next to Quinn Hughes, Zach Bogosian skated with Olli Maatta on the second pair, and Daemon Hunt and Spacek formed the third duo. Spacek also stepped into Spurgeon’s spot on the second power-play unit.
The Wild still haven’t given any kind of recovery window for Spurgeon. Head coach John Hynes is expected to address it after Tuesday night’s game, and Minnesota’s next chance to regroup comes Thursday at home against the St. Louis Blues.
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