Following an embarrassing loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, where they blew a 3-0 lead in the third period, the Minnesota Wild got a spot of good news.
Defenseman Marco Scandella is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday, according to The Star Tribune’s Michael Russo. He skated with the team on Saturday morning.
Scandella suffered a lower body injury playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 17. It wasn’t clear exactly what the injury was with Scandella finishing the game. He’s missed the last five games for the Wild and that comes on the heels of the Wild being without his services for a pair of games earlier in the month due to a personal matter.
The Wild will be very glad to get back a defenseman who has had success on the power play, has a great shot and is able to absorb defensive zone starts as one of the team’s most reliable blueliners.
He has three goals and three assists through 15 games this season,
As a part of getting ready to have him back the Wild have returned rookie Gustav Olofsson to the Iowa Wild of the AHL, where they also sent Christian Folin on Saturday, to bring up Olofsson for a game.
The reassignment of Folin has to do with the fact that he will soon require waivers to be reassigned and with the return of Scandella on the horizon, they’re likely better off putting him down in the AHL to play some big minutes, take on a larger role and gain confidence in his style of play before they have to risk losing him on waivers to reassign him. It was something they didn’t do with Erik Haula, and Russo has reported that the team regretted not doing it with Haula.
The Wild also reassigned forward Kurtis Gabriel to AHL Iowa.
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