ST. PAUL – After what was an embarrassing loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice to kick off a 7-game homestand, the Minnesota Wild are entering a gut-checking time.
Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov has been out since Jan 26 and still hasn’t resumed skating yet. He was originally given a timeline of a minimum of four weeks. We are in week seven.
Joel Eriksson Ek has not played a game since Feb 22 and was listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He isn’t expected back anytime soon.
Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin has been out since Feb 28 and won’t be back anytime soon, either. He has a lower-body injury and is listed as week-to-week.
Have Eriksson Ek or Brodin skated?
“No,” Wild head coach John Hynes said after Sunday’s loss.
For Kaprizov, there is no timeline. For any of them, there isn’t an update of the timeline.
If they are out for the season, would President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin regret not making a move at the deadline to help?
“No, because it’s not going to happen,” Guerin said.
But can he provide an update to the fans?
“No. No. I don’t know exactly when they are going to start skating,” Guerin said.
Doesn’t that mean you’re guessing they will be back then?
“I’m not guessing,” Guerin said.
Despite neither of the three starting to skate yet, the Wild are still under the assumption that the three will all be back for the end of the season and that is why they didn’t go out and make any more moves other than the three they made.
The reason the moves were made was to give this team a boost. In Guerin’s eyes, they deserved it. They have played great all season, despite this little rough patch, Guerin felt they needed a boost.
“I think it’s just like every other deadline when you feel good about your team and you feel that they’ve performed well. They put us in a good spot. We’ve played well, mainly all year. There have been some ups and downs but give them a boost. You know, they’ve earned it,” Guerin said a few days before the deadline. “They need a little boost right now, they need a little help and you know, for this time of year, I think we have to supply that for them.”
The first move they made was waiver claiming Vinnie Hinostroza. The second move was trading a 2026 second-round pick for Gustav Nyquist and the third move was trading a 2026 sixth-round pick, Jakub Lauko, and Marat Khusnutdinov for Justin Brazeau.
Hinostroza, 30, opened his first eight games with the Wild with four goals. He has zero goals in his last two games and has only two shots. He was the team’s first line right winger on Sunday vs the Penguins and had zero shots, zero points and was later demoted to the third line.
Nyquist, 35, has appeared in four games since the trade. He played first line left wing during his first game with the team and was later demoted to the third line on Sunday. He has only six shots and is averaging over 16 minutes of ice time a night.
Brazeau, 27, has no points in two games since the trade and has a skating speed below the 50th percentile in the NHL. The Wild rank 23rd in the NHL in skating speed, according to NHL Edge Stats.
They traded away Khusnutdinov, who is in the 70th percentile in skating speed and Lauko, who is also in the 70th percentile. Nyquist is below the 50th percentile in the NHL in skating speed as well.
So they traded two of their faster and younger players (Lauko: 24, Khusntdinov: 22) for two older and slower players, according to NHL Edge.
I guess time will tell if that matters. It likely doesn’t, but it could play a factor.
In his first home game with the Wild, Brazeau played only 4:10 and skated in two shifts in the second period. He didn’t play in the final 26 minutes of the game. He was not injured; he was just glued to the bench.
Is it because he is slower than others? Probably not. But it is alarming that their only trade deadline acquisition played four minutes and got zero shifts in the third in his first home game and his second game with the team.
“I just didn’t think there was a lot going on with the line in general,” Hynes said on benching Brazeau. “Obviously, we were coming from behind so just had some different shifts and kind of doubled up some other guys that way. It wasn’t so much one player. More of it was just trying to give some guys some different looks and a little bit more ice time.”
With the trade deadline passed, the answer to stopping a struggling Wild team with 18 games left of the season has to be within the room. There won’t be any more help for this team other than getting Kaprizov, Brodin and Eriksson Ek back – if they come back, that is.
“Honestly, you guys have been asking me nonstop about this and I just don’t know,” Guerin said on a timetable for the injuries. “There’s no exact science. I can’t tell you because what I tell you today might be different tomorrow. Things change constantly. I’m not going to say, ‘oh he’s going to be back 17 days from now’ and he’s not black 17 days from now, you guys are going to be like ‘what happened?’ So I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
They are struggling, it is safe to say that. But let’s justify it with numbers.
Since Jan. 9, the Wild rank 28th in the NHL in 20 points. They are 32nd in the league in goals per game (2.26) and 24th in goals against per game (3.22). They also rank 30th with a 66.8 percent penalty kill and 32nd in the NHL in home penalty kill at 65.1 percent.
So the answer to play well before Kaprizov/Eriksson Ek/Brodin come back is within the room?
“Yes. Because of what I’ve seen this year. When we play the way we are capable, when we do the right things, when we’re focused and execute well, then we can not just play with anybody; we can beat anybody,” Guerin said. “So, I think it’s up to the guys in that locker room. They have a responsibility to be on task every night, to play the way that they’re capable of playing, and buy time for the guys to get back.”
In the midst of dropping their last two games and five of its last seven, Minnesota is in a crucial part of the season with 18 games left and have a few teams on their heels in the standings.
It is safe to say it is gut-check time for the Wild, who are set to host the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
“Yeah, it’s tough. I mean, this is the crucial time of year. We’re getting down to where there’s 18 games left, and we need some wins fast,” Wild alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “You don’t want this thing getting out of hand. And it’s not hard. I’d be lying to you if we’re not thinking about it. We know we need some wins here to separate ourselves. So we got to just think about defensive hockey if we’re fighting to score right now.”
