The Minnesota Wild placed their top-scoring contributor on LTIR on Friday in Kirill Kaprizov because of an aggravated lower-body injury.
Minnesota has been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises in 2024-24, sitting in second place of the Central Division with 58 points.
They’ve been without their franchise player since Dec. 23, when Kaprizov collected a goal in the Wild’s 4-3 win over the Blackhawks.
Since then, Minnesota has managed to record a 6-4-0 record in his stead but has now lost three of its last four.
Even though Kaprizov has been out of the lineup for 10 games, the next highest-scorer on the team, Matt Boldy, is 11 points behind Kaprizov’s 50.
The Wild have been underwhelming in 5-on-5 play, ranking outside the top half of the league in both expected goals rate and shot attempt differential per 60 minutes according to Moneypuck.com.
What’s also ironic is that special teams aren’t compensating for these weaknesses with a 21st-ranked power play and the No. 29 overall penalty kill.
Suffice it to say, losing Kaprizov, who owns 23 goals through 34 games, is an obvious blow and the Wild will need to find a way to replicate his production.
Forward Marcus Johansson was also placed on injured reserve on Thursday after sustaining a concussion, reportedly caused by an elbow to the jaw from Edmonton’s Connor McDavid on Wednesday night.
Without placing a player on LTIR, the cap-strapped Wild would have been forced to play one forward short. Johansson must remain on IR for at least seven days, making him eligible to return as early as next Thursday’s game against Utah.
The one positive for Minnesota is that by moving Kaprizov to LTIR, it frees up his $9 million cap hit, giving them the flexibility to call up additional forwards like Liam Ohgren and Brendan Gaunce.
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While the Wild can exercise some roster creativity while they attempt to stay afloat in the Western Conference playoff picture, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin has repeatedly emphasized that the team wants Kaprizov to be fully healthy before returning to the lineup to prevent any risk of re-injury.
“The thing is that we don’t want him to come back and push through,” Guerin said a couple of weeks ago. “He could, but it could make something worse. We need him for the long haul. We don’t just need him for a couple games in January. We need him to get healthy and feel better, so we’re trying to do the right thing and just look at it from the long point of view.”
Some silver lining is that the Wild could be getting other key players back in defenseman Brock Faber and captain Jared Spurgeon sooner than later. Both players skated at practice on Thursday.
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