ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild retroactively placed superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov on long-term injured reserve Thursday, a move that allowed them to call up a pair of forwards ahead of Saturday’s game in Nashville.
With Kaprizov on LTIR, the injury-riddled Wild are permitted to exceed the salary cap by as much as his cap hit ($9 million).
However, this is not a sign that Kaprizov, who has been working his way back from a lower-body injury, has aggravated the injury that has kept the once-Hart Trophy-frontrunner out of the Wild’s lineup since the NHL’s holiday break. Missing 10 games and 24 days is necessary for a player to be placed on LTIR, and Kaprizov has already missed that much, so he’s eligible to be activated whenever he’s ready to return.
It is a sign that Kaprizov won’t return for Saturday’s game against the Nashville Predators. It’s unclear if he will travel so he can skate with the team Saturday morning and potentially practice Sunday in Colorado.
Marcus Johansson was also placed on injured reserve Thursday with what a team source said was a concussion sustained when he was elbowed in the jaw Wednesday night by Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. That meant the cap-strapped Wild would have had to play one forward short had they not placed a player on LTIR. Johansson has to miss at least seven days from the time of injury, so the soonest he’s eligible to come off IR is next Thursday’s game against Utah.
Like defenseman Brock Faber being elbowed in the head by the St. Louis Blues’ Jake Neighbours on Jan. 7, no penalty was called on McDavid and no supplemental discipline was levied by the NHL on Thursday.
Jakub Lauko, who has missed the past 15 games and 21 of the past 24 with a groin injury, has been activated off LTIR and will return in Nashville. Devin Shore, who had no goals and one point in 25 games, and Ben Jones, who had no points in 26 games, were reassigned to AHL Iowa on Thursday.
The Wild exchanged them with Liam Ohgren and Brendan Gaunce Johansson’s injury could open the door for Ohgren to play a top-six role. The 20-year-old 2022 first-round pick has 12 goals and 23 points in 25 games for Iowa after having no points in eight games for the Wild earlier this season. Gaunce has 22 points in 26 games for Iowa.
Minnesota has lost three of its past four games and is 6-4 without Kaprizov, who was originally labeled as day-to-day. When the Wild play in Denver on Monday, it will have been four weeks since the last time the star suited up for a game.
Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin has said multiple times since that the Wild want to make sure Kaprizov is completely healthy once he returns to the lineup to avoid the risk of aggravation.
“The thing is that we don’t want him to come back and push through,” Guerin said two weeks ago. “He could, but it could make something worse. We need him for the long haul. We don’t just need him for a couple games in January. We need him to get healthy and feel better, so we’re trying to do the right thing and just look at it from the long point of view.”
Kaprizov has left Minnesota multiple times in the past three weeks to see specialists. He has been skating regularly for more than a week, as he did Thursday, so there doesn’t seem to have been any setback.
Coach John Hynes outlined the plan Wednesday after Kaprizov, who has yet to practice with the team, took part in his first morning skate since Dec. 23.
“It’s an easy skate, then a hard skate — ‘how did he respond to that?’” Hynes explained. “You push a little bit harder — ‘how did he respond to that?’ It’s an easier day, then a harder day.”
The good news for the team is that Faber is expected to travel and could return Saturday. He has missed the past four games with an upper-body injury. And captain Jared Spurgeon, who sustained a lower-body injury New Year’s Eve when he was slew-footed by Nashville’s Zachary L’Heureux and has missed the past seven games, is progressing. He, along with Kaprizov and Faber, skated Thursday, according to a photo the Wild posted on X.
Thursday in the office 🏒 pic.twitter.com/G7w5kNvhAn
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 16, 2025
(Photo: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
