The Minnesota Wild are in the midst of a mini-slump, as they have lost their last three games. However one major story for the Wild at the moment are the injuries they are currently going through. Since the beginning of the 2024 calendar year, the Wild have placed three players on injury reserve with an upper body injury, two players on injury reserve with a lower body injury, and one player on injury reserve with an undisclosed ailment.
The three players with upper body injuries are defenseman Jonas Brodin of Karlstad, Sweden, right winger Mats Zuccarello of Oslo, Norway, and left winger Kirill Kaprizov of Novokuznetsk, Russia. The two players with lower body injuries are center Vinni Lettieri of Excelsior, Minnesota, and goaltender Filip Gustavsson of Skelleftea, Sweden. Meanwhile, the Wild player with an undisclosed injury is defenseman and captain Jared Spurgeon of Edmonton, Alberta. Brodin, Zuccarello and Lettieiri are expected out until at least Monday. Spurgeon is expected to be out at least another week, while the earliest Kaprizov and Gustavsson are expected to return is at least January 15.
The Wild are fortunate that none of these ailments appear to be long term issues. One must realize that every game is extremely important for the Wild, as they are in seventh place in the Central Division, and four points back of the Arizona Coyotes for a playoff spot.
Two leading scorers and top goaltender
The Wild will be out with their two leading scorers for the foreseeable future. Kaprizov leads the Wild in scoring with 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists), while Zuccarello leads the Wild with 22 assists and is second on the team with 28 points. Meanwhile, Gustavsson got off to an awful start to the season, but has been much better as of late. He has a record of 10-9-2 with a goals against average of 2.95, save percentage of .903 and two shutouts. With Gustavsson on the IR, Marc-Andre Fleury will get the majority of the starts in net. Fleury recently played in his 1000th NHL regular season game.
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