The Minnesota Curse | Wild Wednesday
The Minnesota Curse
Something catastrophic always seems to occur for the Wild at some point in the season and it unfortunately struck this week. While the Wild continue to struggle at home losing their past two games at the X against Utah and Calgary, they still are the best road team in the NHL. They beat the Blackhawks 4-2 in Chicago on Sunday making them 18-5-3 on the road this season. The Wild (29-17-4) have fallen to third in the Central division and are now 11 points behind the first place Winnipeg Jets (35-14-3). The Dallas Stars (32-17-1) are in second, three points ahead of the Wild and the Colorado Avalanche (29-21-2) are only two points behind the Wild.
Unfortunately, the Wild are far from safely securing a playoff spot because the return of their superstar, Kirill Kaprizov, was all just one big tease.
Kirill to Surgery
The Wild announced on Tuesday that Kaprizov will undergo lower-body surgery that will sideline him for a minimum of four weeks. The team has provided very little information surrounding Kaprizov’s injury that initially took him out of the lineup for 12 games starting on Dec. 27, but we do know he was dealing with soreness in his groin and possibly his oblique as well.
Kaprizov only returned for the last three games where he said he was playing through pain and could not perform to his full ability. According to Jessi Pierce, Geurin said that Kaprizov could probably get by in most games, but it is best to fix the problem right now so he can return fully healthy.
Now, if we know anything about the Wild, it is how secretive they can be with timelines or updates on their injured players. The team had Kaprizov listed as day-to-day for weeks claiming it was never anything very serious, and now he is heading into surgery. Michael Russo speculates Kaprizov’s return could be when there are about 16 games left in the season, which is six weeks from now.
Placing a player on the injured reserve like they did with Kaprizov does not free up any cap space, but placing a player on the long-term injured reserve does. The Wild moved Jonas Brodin to the LTIR on Tuesday so they could recall a player from Iowa. To be placed on the LTIR, the player must have an injury that will require him to miss at least 10 games and 24 days during the regular season, so this move does not affect Brodin’s recovery timeline since he was already expected to miss that amount of time.
Now, a possibility, and maybe not a very favorable one, would be to do what the Vegas Golden Knights do best – ‘cheat’ the system. Vegas has done this in consecutive seasons now, but the best example would be when they won the Stanley Cup in 2023 and placed Mark Stone on the LTIR at mid-season, but had him return for Game 1 of their Round 1 playoff series. There is no salary cap in the playoffs, so this move allowed Vegas to acquire players like Ivan Barbashev and Teddy Blueger during the season to further stack their team in time for the playoffs.
The main difference between Vegas’ situation and the Wild’s is that Vegas was pretty certain they were going to make the playoffs when they decided to place Stone on the LTIR. Like I mentioned earlier, the Wild could easily fall out of a playoff spot, making this choice a lot more difficult. Also, with Kaprizov expected to return at that crucial time towards the end of the season, they may need him back in the lineup in order to make the playoffs.
This type of move receives a lot of scrutiny because it is a clever way to cheat the salary cap, but it is totally legal. It is exceptionally intriguing because there are players like Brock Nelson and Brock Boeser that will likely be moved by the trade deadline and the Wild have shown interest in both those players, but the only way it would work is to open up cap space. If the Wild were able to acquire either of those players, it does not mean they could not keep them for next season either because remember, the Wild are on the last season of ‘Cap Hell,” where they have $14.7 million in dead cap space.
So, keep an eye on whether Kaprizov shifts to the LTIR, or if the Wild start talking of a big trade for a player like the two listed above because that will hint at what their plans are as they head closer to the playoffs.
Looking Forward
The Wild are currently on game two of a five-game road trip where they face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. So, will this team adapt without their superstar and maintain a playoff spot, or will they fall victim to the Minnesota curse once again... Time will tell.
Kelly Rivard
Kelly is a Minnesota native and a proud Gopher alumna who enjoys making people laugh and spending time with family. Her skills include going 5/6 on parlays, managing multiple incredibly great (fantasy) sports teams and throwing 30 mph fastballs. When she’s not at the X, Target Field or US Bank Stadium cheering on her favorite teams, you can find her pouring drinks for customers at her hometown pub.
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