The Minnesota Wild finally seemed to be turning a corner in the injury department with just two names on the injured list: Vinni Lettieri and, of course, Jared Spurgeon, before their back-to-back trip to the sunny state of Florida to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night Jan. 18 and then the Florida Panthers on Friday, Jan. 19.
However, that list slowly grew as it was announced following the game against the Lightning that Frédérick Gaudreau would miss their game against the Panthers with an upper-body injury, and it’s unclear how long he’ll be out for. To make matters worse, they added two more names to that list barely halfway through their game against the Panthers.
Early on in the Panthers game, it appeared Marc-André Fleury was clipped as William Lockwood tried to squeeze between him and the boards. He remained in the game until partway through the second period, when he left at the same time the Panthers swapped their goaltender. The Wild PR X page later announced that he had suffered an upper-body injury and wouldn’t return.
After the game, during the press conference with head coach John Hynes, he stated he didn’t have any updates on the injuries, and he’s unsure if they’ll have to call anyone up because the players could be fine. He also stated that Fleury did pull himself from the game because of how he felt.
In the same announcement as Fleury, the team also stated that forward Connor Dewar wouldn’t return as he had a lower-body injury. It was reported by the Star Tribune’s Sarah McLellan on X that Dewar left the game after a collision with Gustav Forsling and had fallen to the ice. So the Wild went into the trip with two names on the list and left Florida with five names on the list.
They have one game left on their road trip that will take place on Sunday, Jan. 21, against the Carolina Hurricanes. Only time will tell if the Wild will bring any players up or not. Obviously, if Fleury isn’t good to go for a while, they’ll likely give Jesper Wallstedt another shot in the net after his last start was a rough 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars.
Regarding forwards, they may choose to bring up Nic Petan, Sammy Walker, or even Jacob Lucchini, but they did keep Adam Raska up as well, so they may only bring up one player, if any. The one thing the Wild have going for them is they’re used to playing with injuries, and they can still win, so hopefully, they can keep that going.
