The Minnesota Wild head to Buffalo for their third game of the season on Tuesday, and they may have to do it without one of the young centers they’ve leaned on early.
Danila Yurov left practice on Monday with an upper-body injury, adding another wrinkle to a Minnesota injury situation that already includes Brock Faber. The Wild still haven’t said much publicly about Faber, whose skull was fractured in Minnesota’s final preseason game against Dallas. Michael Russo of The Athletic reported over the weekend that there are “scary behind-the-scenes details” the team and he are not ready to share.
Yurov’s situation became the newest concern on Monday. The 22-year-old has been centering the Wild’s top line between Kirill Kaprizov and Max Shabanov, but his practice exit raised immediate questions about whether he’ll be available in Buffalo.
After practice, head coach John Hynes said Yurov’s departure had been planned and was precautionary, though he also said the forward’s status for Tuesday is uncertain.
Yurov has been one of the more interesting pieces in Minnesota’s early-season lineup. The Wild drafted him 24th overall in 2022, and through two games this season he has one assist, two shots, four hits, one blocked shot and 12:35 of average ice time, according to Hockey-Reference.
If he can’t go, The Athletic’s Joe Smith reported the Wild’s practice lines as follows:
Kirill Kaprizov - Ryan Hartman - Maxim Shabanov
Blake Coleman - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin - Michael McCarron - Bobby Brink
Marcus Foligno - Nick Foligno - Nico Sturm
Yurov has opened games on Kaprizov’s line, but he hasn’t been glued there for every shift. He logged 12:29 in the opener and 12:41 in the second game, when Hynes said he got “banged up.”
Shabanov has averaged 15:02 of ice time this season, while Kaprizov has been pushed to 19:51 through two games thanks in part to penalty-kill work and some late-game super-line usage with Matt Boldy. That number is still below Kaprizov’s career average of 20:44.
Yurov’s rookie season last year was a productive one. He scored 12 goals and added 15 assists in 73 games, then chipped in a goal and two assists in nine playoff games during Minnesota’s deepest postseason run in a decade.
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