Hockey

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It’s a late one on Saturday night. The Minnesota Wild are visiting the San Jose Sharks and are about to play just their third game without Kirill Kaprizov since he made his debut in 2020. He will be out for at least the rest of the month, so they will have to figure it out and quickly.
Wild at Sharks
When: 9:30 p.m. CTWhere: SAP CenterTV: BSN, BSWI, NBCSCARadio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Sam Steel — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldyMarcus Foligno — Frederick Faudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Marc-Andre FleuryFilip Gustavsson
Projected Sharks lineup
William Eklund — Tomas Hertl — Fabian ZetterlundAndreas Johnsson — Logan Couture — Alexander BarabanovNoah Gregor — Nico Sturm — Evgeny SvechnikovOskar Lindblom — Steven Lorentz — Kevin Labanc
Nikolai Knyzhov — Erik KarlssonMarc-Edouard Vlasic — Matt BenningMario Ferraro — Derrick Pouliot
Kaapo KahkonenJames Reimer
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Kaprizov’s absence looms large, but Sharks offer Minnesota an opportunity to learn to play without the superstar. It’s hard not to look at every facet of this game through the lens of Kirill Kaprizov’s absence. It’s the first meaningful game that the Minnesota Wild have played without him since he came aboard in the 2020-21 season (he has sat twice — in the final game of each of the past two seasons when the playoff seeding was already set). Every matchup and lineup decision is going to be viewed as an effect caused by Kaprizov’s absence, and rightfully so.
Wild at Sharks
When: 9:30 p.m. CTWhere: SAP CenterTV: BSN, BSWI, NBCSCARadio: KFAN 100.3
Kaprizov has been putting up the type of team MVP season which can steal a league-MVP award when perennial contenders such as Connor McDavid post a down year (important note — that is not this year). Through 65 games (nearly an entire season) Kaprizov has 22 percent of Minnesota’s goals and 18 percent of the 5-on-5 goals, all of which is backed by highly sustainable scoring chances. As for the power play, simply look back at the floundering units that the Wild had before Kaprizov arrived in Minnesota.
The amount of team scoring that Kaprizov has been responsible for this season is absurd before accounting for the fact that other teams know he’s Minnesota’s only real scoring threat on a nightly basis. Without the threat of Kaprizov, things could quickly become grim for the newly productive Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy line. I would expect opposing teams to start deploying their shutdown players when the Wild play on the road, as they do tonight.
Projected Wild lineup
Sam Steel — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldyMarcus Foligno — Frederick Faudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Marc-Andre FleuryFilip Gustavsson
Head coach Dean Evason seems to think they’ll be up to the challenge. Rather than re-shaping his forward group, he left his lineup unchanged and slotted Sam Steel in Kaprizov’s spot. They also have Sammy Walker to try there next game, if Steel does a poor job.
Projected Sharks lineup
William Eklund — Tomas Hertl — Fabian ZetterlundAndreas Johnsson — Logan Couture — Alexander BarabanovNoah Gregor — Nico Sturm — Evgeny SvechnikovOskar Lindblom — Steven Lorentz — Kevin Labanc
Nikolai Knyzhov — Erik KarlssonMarc-Edouard Vlasic — Matt BenningMario Ferraro — Derrick Pouliot
Kaapo KahkonenJames Reimer
As for the Sharks, it’s been an inexplicably trying year. They’re a middle-of-the-pack team in many advanced metrics such as expected goals rate (xG%), which measures the quality of a given team’s scoring chances vs. the quality of chances given up. Their goaltending tandem of James Reimer and Kaapo Kahkonen has been bad (56th and 70th out of 74 qualifying goaltenders in save % above expected). The largest team problem for San Jose has been that they take too many penalties (2nd worst share of PP time in the league). On the other hand, with Minnesota’s power play ace out of the lineup, it may be impossible to punish San Jose for those penalties.
Knowing that Kaprizov is out, both San Jose and Minnesota will probably try to win ugly tonight. I expect that San Jose will try and match its best defensive players against Matt Boldy’s line. Their shutdown defense pair of Marc-Édouard Vlasic and Matt Benning have controlled play and smothered their opponents all year, but Nikolai Knyzhov has returned next to and Erik Karlsson, who make up a true number one pairing as well.
Overall, it seems like this could be a get-right game for the Wild’s snake-bitten forward group, and a good warm-up to life without Kaprizov as the regular season winds down.
Burning Questions
Can Matt Boldy shoulder the load going forward?
With Kaprizov no longer in the lineup, the best offensive weapon on the Wild is almost certainly Matt Boldy. With the addition of speedy veteran Marcus Johansson, Boldy has been finding the scoresheet with somewhat greater regularity.
Not only is Boldy top dog at 5-on-5, he also likely becomes the trigger man on the power play with Ryan Hartman taking Kaprizov’s spot rather than seeing any type of reshuffling. With the coaching staff hoping to see more of a shoot-first mentality from Boldy, this is a great opportunity for him to develop that mentality against a team with poor goaltending.
How will the Sharks try to check the new-look Wild forward group?
With Kaprizov no longer headlining the Harman/Zuccarello line, it’s likely that other teams will start to hone in on Matt Boldy’s line. After all of the deadline moves that the Sharks made, it will be interesting to see which forwards San Jose deploys to check Boldy’s line as well. The Sharks have had massive roster turnover, shipping out star winger Timo Meier, linemate Michael Eyssimont, and shutdown forward Nick Bonino to continue their rebuild. This leaves the sharks with a solid core of center-ice men in Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, and Nico Sturm, so I would expect San Jose to feast in the faceoff dot — but nowhere else.
Who steps up to provide secondary scoring?
This Wild lineup is now filled with secondary scorers. Whether Boldy can turn on some star power or not, Minnesota will need one or two goals each night to continue stacking wins. Hartman and Zuccarello aren’t exactly passengers, but they will need to find new ways to score without Kaprizov on the ice. The entire Wild forward group has underperformed offensively this season, and I almost wonder if defensemen like Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba, Alex Goligoski, or new addition John Klingberg can remedy that scoring drought.

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We have found a home. As you all might know by now, we have been working tirelessly on finding a new home for Hockey Wilderness since Vox Media and SB Nation let us know in January that they would no longer be financially supporting this website any longer. Thankfully, that work has paid off.
We can officially announce that Hockey Wilderness will be joining Zone Coverage as their official Minnesota Wild brand and website.
The wonderful team over at Zone Coverage approached us with this idea about joining forces and we have not looked back. Hockey Wilderness will remain at the same domain (hockeywilderness.com) and we are working towards establishing a new site that will have the same features as this current one, plus more. We will still have a commenting system for game coverage, and continue to be the place to find all the best Wild content out there.
One key aspect of this merger is teaming up with the crew over at 10K Rinks. The site 10K Rinks as we know it right now will no longer exist, but the team led by Tony Abbott will now have all their content under the Hockey Wilderness banner along with our current team of writers.
We continue to work with Vox Media in the process of transferring over the rights to the site IP and making it an easy transition to this new, bigger and better Hockey Wilderness. Our current goal is to have this new site ready right when Vox stops supporting us on April 1, but we will keep you all updated as we go through this process.
A massive thank you to Tom, Cy, John, Tony, and the entire team over at Zone Coverage for bringing us on and making this the place to be when it comes to reading, discussing, and checking out what is going on with our Wild.

Photo by Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. We haven’t written much about prospects overseas and how their individual seasons are going, but when we saw what happened to Marat Khusnutdinov on Thursday, we knew we had to share it.
The Minnesota Wild’s 2020 second-round pick was playing in SKA St. Petersburg’s first-round matchup against Dinamo Minsk in the Gagarin Cup playoffs, when he went for a gutsy defensive play that got him a a stick whacked right in his face.

Oof. Khusnutdinov pulls off the diving poke check at the buzzer to knock the puck loose, but Duszak is already committed to the slapshot and hits him square in the face with the blade. That’s brutal https://t.co/5562uds6Hp pic.twitter.com/5PpNirar8v— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 9, 2023

Yeouch!
The 20-year-old center did not waste any time (because he is the best) and came back with a simple bubble visor and acting like nothing happened. And then, just because he is really a two-way monster on the puck, he made another sacrificing play to block a slapshot on a penalty kill.

He literally jumps back on the ice to kill a penalty and immediately blocks another slapshot up high. Marat Khusnutdinov is a maniac #mnwild https://t.co/WSTnu3ppT9 pic.twitter.com/uprXn825W6— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 9, 2023

Thankfully he did eventually get an assist on an empty-net goal goal to reward him for the bravery. Just an absolute Wild Man. We cannot wait until he makes the trip overseas next summer.
With 11 goals and 41 points in 63 games in the KHL this season, you could make the argument that he could jump into the NHL right now and not look worse for wear. He’s built in the same way as other Wild prospects, with the fact that he works so damn hard and cares so much about possession that he is a very good defender.
That’s Wild

In more depressing news, the Wild confirmed last night that Kirill Kaprizov will be out for three to four weeks after Logan Stanley fell on top of him. In response, they recalled Sammy Walker from Iowa. [Hockey Wilderness]

The Wild signed defenseman prospect Kyle Masters to his three-year, entry-level contract after he has played an excellent year for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers. [Hockey Wilderness]

What happens after a trade is made in the NHL? A behind-the-scenes look at what really goes after one transaction is made and spawns a bunch of problems that need to be solved. [The Athletic]

Nobody scores in Minnesota. [Defector]

Off the trail…

Boston Bruins pest Brad Marchand opened up about his team’s dominance, trolling the city of Detroit, and his favorite Ninja Turtle. [ESPN]

The Edmonton Oilers came back from a deficit against the Boston Bruins last night, marking the first time that the history-chasing Bruins lost after having a lead after 20 minutes. [Yahoo Sports]

Oh, and the Dallas Stars won last night, making it so they have two points over our Wild in the standings. But the neat fact is that they won by a score of 10-4. Ten goals! [TSN]

Photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images

Minnesota will be without its best player for at least the rest of the month. We were just feeling confident about this Minnesota Wild team fighting for the top spot of the Central division and then disaster struck.
The team announced on Thursday afternoon that Kirill Kaprizov will miss three to four weeks with a lower-body injury.

#mnwild Injury Update: Kirill Kaprizov is expected to miss three to four weeks with a lower-body injury. pic.twitter.com/DnHw6jit8F— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) March 9, 2023

This isn’t some mystery diagnosis or injury picked up in practice, we know exactly how it happened because we have video footage of something happening to Kaprizov’s legs when the giant doofus defenseman Logan Stanley fell on top of the star player during Wednesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.

Logan Stanley falls on top of Kaprizov and he left the game. NOOO! pic.twitter.com/IHBdo141al— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 9, 2023

We won’t speculate what exactly is wrong with Kaprizov’s lower-body, but we just know it did not look good when it happened.
In response to missing their best player for a substantial amount of time, the Wild have recalled winger Sammy Walker from the AHL. The electric forward can bring some spark to the talent group, but only a handful of people on this planet could provide the same stuff that Kaprizov does every single night.
It doesn’t help that just over a week ago, we knew that this team would not be getting the points that they were getting if it wasn’t for Kaprizov. Almost every game the winger was getting a point or multiple goals to keep one of the worst offensive team in the league — the Wild rank 28th in goals for per game — winning hockey games. Now, they will need to really depend on the depth additions they made at the NHL trade deadline like Marcus Johansson to contribute.
If Kaprizov is out for four weeks, that puts him coming back right before the end of the regular season, as the Wild play their final game on April 13. We really need to hope that there will be no setbacks and he is back to full health for the postseason.
What will the lineup look like now?
Honestly, we have no idea what this means. We assume that Walker will get some games and not just be the extra forward for the upcoming road trip. Plus, we know that head coach Dean Evason loves his consistent lines, so should we expect Walker to just get that top left-wing spot so that all the other forward lines stay the same?
Sam Steel is an option too, to get back in some games after being a regular healthy scratch.
We will have to wait until practice on Friday to find out what exactly Evason is planning.

Another prospect has linked up with the Wild. This time of the NHL calendar is used to secure playoff seeding and for teams to get their prospects and other young players signed to contracts. The Minnesota Wild have been busy, signing players like Caedan Bankier, Hunter Haight, and David Spacek to their respective entry-level deals, and they continued to do that on Thursday.
Announced by the team, they have signed defenseman Kyle Masters to his three-year, entry-level contract.

✍️ SIGNING ✍️We have signed defenseman Kyle Masters to a Three-Year, Entry-Level Contract. More » https://t.co/4sVH2Aranw#mnwild pic.twitter.com/iDoOyYRcNR— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 9, 2023

Masters, 19, was drafted by the Wild in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft and has really seen his play explode offensively this season. He was traded to the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers from the Red Deer Rebels, and despite having solid tracked numbers, he never put up as many points as people hoped he would. Well, as soon as he went to a good team (the Rebels were very bad) in the Blazers, his production skyrocketed into scoring 11 goals and 59 points in 58 games.
He is simply a 6-foot, right-handed defenseman that can scoot around the ice with great mobility and has good enough vision on both ends of the puck for us to be excited about his development.

If you follow me for #mnwild prospect stuff, you’ve seen me hype up Kyle Masters and how he was a fourth-round steal this summer. This is a big reason why: pic.twitter.com/9uI2bVIZQj— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) January 29, 2022

This was the last year of Master’s eligibility to be signed by the Wild. If they didn’t put pen to paper, he would have become an unrestricted free agent on June 1.
With this contract wrapped up, the only other player on the Wild’s reserve list of drafted players that could become free agents this summer is Boston College defenseman Marshall Warren, who was selected in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. We haven’t heard from any official sources, but considering the production is nothing special, he might hit the open market.
Masters will be turning 20 years old next month, so he will be heading down to the AHL next season, or could possibly do the rare turn of playing in the CHL as an overager. But considering what he has shown this season, he might be able to join the steady supply of young defensemen the Wild are producing down in the minors.

Photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. Well, that’s certainly one way to dampen the spirits after the Minnesota Wild make it 10 games in a row where they have earned at least a point when they won 4-2 over the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night.
Halfway through the third period, giant defenseman Logan Stanley falls right on top of Kirill Kaprizov as he’s in a difficult position.

Logan Stanley falls on top of Kaprizov and he left the game. NOOO! pic.twitter.com/IHBdo141al— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 9, 2023

The Wild star left the game and did not return. After the game, head coach Dean Evason was not able to give any updates except that Kaprizov will be getting a full evaluation during the team’s day off on Thursday.
Selfishly, the Wild potentially losing their best player as they fight for the top spot in the division is disheartening at this time of the season. I guess let’s just hope that he’s fully healthy in time for playoffs.
If we’re looking for good news, Kaprizov skated himself off the ice.
That’s Wild

For more details on Kaprizov’s injury, The Athletic put out a little write-up on the situation. [The Athletic]

As he makes himself a mainstay on a forward line with some scoring punch, the Wild are finally recognizing that Joel Eriksson Ek can hold his own offensively in addition to being one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail…

After spearing Corey Perry with the end of his stick like a little child, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo got suspended for two games. [Broad Street Hockey]

Ten years later, ESPN redrafts the 2013 NHL Entry Draft with Nathan MacKinnon at the top again (duh). [ESPN]

Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar isn’t sure that captain Gabe Landeskog can fully return to top-tier form with the team. [NHL dot com]

Photo by Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images

Wild are north of the border tonight. Oh boy. The Minnesota Wild have a very important game against the Winnipeg Jets tonight. Separated by just four points in the standings and equal in games played, this can either put the Jets back in the top-3 picture for the Central, or put the Wild at the top of the entire division.
Wild at Jets
When: 6:30 p.m. CTWhere: MTS CentreTV: BSN, BSWI, SNRadio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldyMarcus Foligno — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Marc-Andre FleuryFilip Gustavsson
Projected Jets lineup
Nikolaj Ehlers — Mark Scheifele — Nino NiederreiterKyle Connor — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Blake WheelerVladislav Namestnikov — Adam Lowry — Mason AppletonSaku Maenalanen — Kevin Stenlund — Morgan Barron
Josh Morrissey — Neal PionkBrendan Dillon — Dylan DeMeloLogan Stanley — Nate Schmidt
Connor HellebuyckDavid Rittich
Winnipeg addressed a whole lot of depth issues around the NHL trade deadline by getting our friend Niederreiter and another forward in Namestnikov, so they might be a better team right now than their current record.
Join us in the comments below!

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Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. The Minnesota Wild had multiple chances to win last night’s game against the Calgary Flames but some sort of force just did not want them to win that hockey game.
Whether it was Ryan Reaves missing a prime opportunity to score, Jared Spurgeon’s dramatic overtime winner getting called back because of an offside, or Frederick Gaudreau being the only Wild skater getting a goal in the shootout; there were those key factors that just put the Wild behind.
Still, they managed to get a point from a really weird game where no actual goals were scored. They are now just two points behind the Central-leading Dallas Stars, but have to really watch out for the Colorado Avalanche sneaking up on the standings, with three games in-hand and just five points back. It is going to be a dramatic shuffling of playoff seedings in the last month of the regular season.
That’s Wild

Matt Boldy isn’t producing at the same rate he did during his rookie season last year, but there is a silver lining to that fact. [10K Rinks]

Wild players last night did not wear the Pride warm-up jerseys like they were scheduled to. There was a last-minute change to the plan, according to reports. [The Athletic]

Off the trail…

The Philadelphia Flyers are, plainly, lucky that they have such a caring fan base supporting this team. Some fans would just stop watching or caring or debating, but the group over there is really digging into the lack of action around the NHL trade deadline. [BSH]

The New Jersey Devils are really trying to sign Timo Meier to a long-term contract. [TSN]

Defenseman Rasmus Sandin escaped the Toronto media and is now living large with a big opportunity with the Washington Capitals. [Sportsnet]

Let’s do it again. Our beloved Minnesota Wild are hosting the Calgary Flames in what could be a very important game in the standings.
Wild vs. Flames
When: 7:00 p.m. CTWhere: Xcel Energy CenterTV: BSN, BSWI, SNWRadio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldyMarcus Foligno — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpugeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Filip GustavssonMarc-Andre Fleury
Projected Flames lineup
Jakob Pelletier — Elias Lindholm — Tyler ToffoliNick Ritchie — Nazem Kadri — Jonathan HuberdeauAndrew Mangiapane — Mikael Backlund — Blake ColemanMilan Lucic — Dillon Dube — Trevor Lewis
MacKenzie Weegar — Rasmus AnderssonNoah Hanifin — Chris TanevNikita Zadorov — Troy Stecher
Jacob MarkstromDaniel Vladar
Join us in the comments down below!