Opening-day rosters are due Tuesday, and the Wild worked to reach the 23-man limit Monday by placing winger J.T. Brown on waivers and assigning defenseman Louie Belpedio to the American Hockey League.
Wild places J.T. Brown on waivers, assigns Louie Belpedio to minors
The Wild has to get to the 23-man limit by Tuesday.
September 30, 2019 at 6:22PM
If Brown clears, he will also be assigned to Iowa.
These moves leave the Wild with 24 players on its roster, but it may not need to make any more cuts.
Forward Mason Shaw, who's recovering from knee surgery, will be designated as an injured non-roster player, and defenseman Greg Pateryn (lower-body injury) could be shifted to injured reserve – potentially dropping the roster to 22.
With Pateryn out, Belpedio and Carson Soucy had been competing for what's looked like one spot on the blue line – a job that Soucy appears to have won to give the Wild seven available defensemen.
Although Belpedio is a right shot like Pateryn, Soucy's physicaility (6-5 and 211 pounds) might have been an appealing trait for a Wild defense corps that has only one healthy player other than Soucy listed over 6-1 (Nick Seeler is 6-2).
After a day off Monday, the team is back to practice Tuesday.
The Wild opens the season Thursday in Nashville against the Predators.
Team USA lost the title game at the 4 Nations Face-Off despite strong play from Brock Faber and Matt Boldy.
