- Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was placed on injured reserve Sunday with an upper-body injury
- The move is retroactive to Oct. 12, so he can return Tuesday in Edmonton
- Read below for the Wild’s recalls and the other injuries piling up in Minnesota
The Wild have put captain Jared Spurgeon on injured reserve.
General manager Bill Guerin announced the move Sunday, and the team recalled defensemen Carson Lambos and forward Hunter Haight from the Iowa Wild in response. Here’s the team’s announcement:
The IR placement is retroactive to Oct. 12. That means Spurgeon isn’t eligible to return until Tuesday, when the Wild visit the Edmonton Oilers. He has already missed two games with an upper-body injury, a loss to the Winnipeg Jets last Tuesday and a win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
Minnesota hasn’t said what the injury is or given a timeline for his return.
The 36-year-old played the first six games of the season and has a goal and four assists for five points. He’s averaging 22:22 of ice time and sits at plus-4. Spurgeon hasn’t had much luck staying healthy over his 17 NHL seasons, and only one of them saw him play every game. That was 2018-19. He appeared in 79 games last year.
Lambos and Haight aren’t expected to play Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, since the Wild are running back the same lineup that beat the Blues. Lambos, 23, has two points in six games with Iowa. Haight, 22, has five points in six games there.
Spurgeon is far from the only Wild player down. Defenseman Olli Määttä is also out with an upper-body injury, and Minnesota now has six players on regular or long-term injured reserve. Brock Faber had surgery on a fractured skull and goalie Filip Gustavsson landed on IR before the season. Star winger Kirill Kaprizov is fine after his scare against the Blues and is in the lineup against Columbus.
The Wild (5-2-1) host the Blue Jackets tonight, then start a five-game road trip through the Pacific Division. They won’t be back at home until Oct. 29.
