The Wild has run into significant injuries up front, yet in the past four games the team has called up three forwards who either barely played or didn't play at all.
The Iowa Wild, an American Hockey League affiliate, is struggling for the third consecutive season, and the lack of skill there is finally being felt on the big club.
Tyler Graovac has missed all but one game for the Wild and is expected to miss at least another month after abdominal surgery. Both Zach Parise and Justin Fontaine are out because of sprained knee ligaments.
In dire need of reinforcements, the Wild hasn't been able to turn to any sure-thing prospects or players. Part of the problem is the Baby Wild has its share of injuries. Center Zac Dalpe is out indefinitely after hip surgery; and Michael Keranen, Grayson Downing and Ruslan Fedotenko just returned from injuries.
In the past week, the Wild has called up Christoph Bertschy twice and Kurtis Gabriel and Brett Bulmer once. Bertschy averaged 7½ minutes in two games, Gabriel played less than three and Bulmer didn't even play Saturday. Bulmer went back to Des Moines on Sunday, and the team will have to recall a forward — possibly Keranen — by Tuesday.
Wild coach Mike Yeo basically said it would be easy to increase the ice time of other forwards because "those guys haven't exactly been playing 15 minutes for us."
Yeo said the ideal thing "would be to have somebody come up and be so good and prove they really deserve to be here full time. I don't think that we're quite there yet. I think the guys have come up and have done a nice job, but they're young kids that still need to build their game.
"They've filled in admirably, but they're not ready [to be full-time NHLers] yet. They have to make sure that they're … playing the game the right way and building it and make sure they're working for their next chance."