The Wild head into the week of Oct. 19 to Oct. 26 carrying one issue that keeps sticking around: injuries. They’ve already navigated a busy stretch at home, and even with the lineup constantly shifting, the results have mostly held up.
Minnesota opened that run by beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Monday, Oct. 12, then lost to the Jets in Winnipeg the next night. Back home on Thursday, Oct. 15, the Wild outlasted the St. Louis Blues 5-4, and they wrapped the homestand Sunday with a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
What’s been most telling is how many pieces the Wild have had to patch together along the way. The injury list has hit both the bottom six and, more importantly, the blue line.
The Foligno brothers have been among the forwards affected, while the defense has absorbed losses to Brock Faber’s skull fracture and absences from Jared Spurgeon, Olli Määttä, and Zach Bogosian. Bogosian is back after missing one game, but Spurgeon and Määttä remain sidelined.
Head coach John Hynes said after the win over Columbus that both will travel on the road trip, though their actual return to game action is still uncertain.
Even with that disruption, the Wild haven’t looked rattled. Rieger Lorenz, Tyler Pitlick, David Špaček, and Matt Kiersted have all been brought up and have stepped in without much drop-off. They’ve filled the gaps and helped keep Minnesota winning.
Kiersted explained his approach after the Blue Jackets game, saying, “Yeah, no, I think that’s exactly what I wanted to come in and do. There’s an opportunity for me to come into the lineup, and just want to help the team in any way I can. I think from the back end I think we’ve played strong, Hughesy does his thing out there he’s playing a lot but if I can come in and do anything, just play simple kind of and lighten the burden a little bit,”
At the top of the lineup, the Wild’s first line has remained a reliable force. The group opened the season with Kirill Kaprizov, Danila Yurov, and Maxim Shabanov, but the injuries forced a shuffle.
Now it’s Kaprizov with Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek, and that combination has kept producing. The three have a clear feel for one another, and that’s shown up in the way they move the puck and recover it when possession breaks down.
Minnesota will need that line to keep driving play with matchups like the Edmonton Oilers and Utah Mammoth on the horizon.
The defense, meanwhile, has been the other encouraging piece. Given the missing bodies, it would have been easy for that group to sag.
Instead, it has stayed organized and steady, with Quinn Hughes leading the way. He first worked with Jared Spurgeon, and when Spurgeon went out, he shifted beside Jonas Brodin.
In both pairings, the fit has looked smooth.
That flexibility has mattered. Spurgeon, Brodin, and Faber all bring different qualities, but each has meshed well with Hughes. For a team dealing with this many injuries this early, that kind of adjustment has been a big reason the Wild have kept their game intact.
Here’s what’s next for Minnesota:
- Tues.
Oct. 20 at Edmonton Oilers, 8:00 PM CT, Rogers Place - McDavid vs Kaprizov
- Thurs.
Oct. 22 at Calgary Flames, 8:00 PM CT, Scotiabank Saddledome - Don’t play down to struggling teams
- Sat.
Oct. 24 at Seattle Kraken, 9:00 PM CT, Climate Pledge Arena - Similar strengths, even match-up
- Sun.
Oct. 25 at Vancouver Canucks, 9:00 PM CT, Rogers Arena - Second half back-to-back, recovery?
In Other News...
Wild Keep Getting Linked To A Trade Fans Will Obsess Over
The trade buzz around Dylan Larkin keeps growing, and Minnesota remains the team most tied to the situation. The 30-year-old Detroit center has requested a move, and the possibility of a deal has become a legitimate talking point around the league, with the Wild sitting right at the center of it because of his reported preference to land there.
Detroit, though, is not expected to let this go cheaply. The Red Wings are said to be looking for a premier return, and Larkins no-trade clause has helped complicate every layer of the discussion. For Minnesota, the intrigue is obvious: this is the kind of name that can alter a roster conversation in a hurry, even if the path to actually getting him remains tangled. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder Of That Marat Khusnutdinov Trade
Marat Khusnutdinov is already settling in with the Bruins, and Boston has moved quickly to make sure he stays a while. The forward, whom the Bruins picked up from the Wild at the 2025 trade deadline, has been extended on a three-year deal after carving out a role as a middle-six winger, a reminder that his transition to North America is starting to pay off in a real way for his new team.
For Minnesota, the update adds another layer to a deadline deal that already carried some long-term curiosity. Khusnutdinov was a second-round pick by the Wild in 2020 and had only arrived in North America midway through the 2023-24 season before getting moved, so there was always a sense that his next contract would say something about the value he was capable of reaching. Now that Boston has locked him in, Wild fans are left looking back at what went out the door and wondering how the trade will age from here. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Face A Franchise Defining Call On Danila Yurov
Danila Yurov has given the Wild exactly the kind of early-season jolt they were hoping to see from a young center trying to take hold in the NHL. Through the first stretch of his sophomore season, he has looked more comfortable in every area, with his scoring ticking up and his work at the dot becoming a real asset rather than just a nice bonus.
That kind of progress is what makes any conversation around his future in Minnesota so complicated. The Wild are trying to measure where they are in their competitive window and what it would take to push the roster closer to contender status, which is why Yurov has surfaced in a theoretical trade discussion built around a proven top-line center. No move has been made, but the very fact that a player with this much promise is part of the conversation says plenty about the franchises next big decision. [Read more 🡒]