Kirill Kaprizov will return Thursday for Wild after a month away

Kirill Kaprizov’s monthlong layoff is over.

The Wild’s leading scorer and captain Jared Spurgeon will be back in action Thursday when the Wild face Utah Hockey Club at Xcel Energy Center. Both practiced Wednesday at Tria Rink in St. Paul, with Kaprizov skating on the top line, Spurgeon teaming up with Declan Chisholm on defense and both taking reps on the power play.

Kaprizov hasn’t played since Dec. 23, the star winger getting sidelined with a lower-body injury when the Wild returned from the holidays.

Coach John Hynes mentioned at the time Kaprizov was sore going into the break, and President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin said Kaprizov was dealing with a lingering issue that wasn’t real serious but was getting addressed to ensure he was good to go for the long run.

But days turned into weeks, Kaprizov didn’t resume skating until the homestand against St. Louis and Colorado earlier this month, and he went on long-term injured reserve so the Wild could refurbish their roster amid his injury and others.

This was only his second practice with the Wild, although Kaprizov did get on the ice with the team before the Edmonton game last week.

As for Spurgeon, he’s missed the past nine games with a lower-body injury after getting slew-footed into the boards on New Year’s Eve by Nashville’s Zachary L’Heureux.

Defenseman Jonas Brodin (lower body) and winger Marcus Johansson (concussion) are still out. Neither has started skating.

To have enough salary cap space to add Kaprizov and Spurgeon to their lineup, the Wild sent David Jiricek to the minors.

Jiricek rejoins Iowa in the American Hockey League after his two most memorable games with the Wild, who sent their first-rounder and three other draft picks to Columbus to acquire the defenseman in November. He scored his first goal of the season last Saturday in the 6-2 loss to the Predators and picked up an assist during the 3-1 victory at Colorado on Monday while also improving defensively.

“You’ve seen at times where he’s got great offensive instincts and has the ability to make plays,” Hynes said. “Then there’s other times, like any player, plays under pressure on breakouts — that’s a difficult task at the NHL level. Sometimes the D-zone, the details of when to go, when not to go, when to hold ice, when not to hold ice. The nice thing is that I think there’s much more positive, in seeing him play and play regularly, than there are things he needs to work on.”

Rookie Liam Ohgren has also made an impression lately.

Promoted from Iowa after Johansson got hurt, Ohgren assisted on two goals vs. the Avalanche and was on the ice for all three scored by the Wild.

“Some of the things that we wanted to be better at against Colorado, he was very good at,” Hynes said. “I thought he was good on the forecheck, good speed. He had a couple nice plays on the goals, and now you’re starting to see him use his natural abilities. The game’s coming more natural to him.”

That win was the Wild’s seventh in the 12 games they’ve logged without Kaprizov.

Hynes doesn’t think Kaprizov would have returned any sooner had the team swooned in his absence, but respectable results without him means Kaprizov — who still leads the team in goals (23), assists (27) and points (50) — doesn’t have to come back and rescue the Wild.

“Everybody else has to continue to do what they’re doing,” Hynes said. “Then that’s when the players come back, of the magnitude of those two guys, and everybody else continues to play at the level that they’ve played at, now your team can get stronger, and that’s something that I’d like to see.”

Utah Hockey Club at Wild

TV; radio: ESPN+/Hulu; 100.3-FM

Utah Hockey Club update: Utah hasn’t played since Monday, when it defeated Winnipeg 5-2. C Logan Cooley scored for a fourth straight game, a career high for the former Gopher, and LW Clayton Keller had a goal and two assists despite missing most of the second period after getting hit in the face with a puck. Keller has two goals and seven assists during a four-game point streak. Although Utah has only four wins over its past 14 games, the team is still in contention for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Utah is 1-0-1 vs. the Wild.

Injuries: Wild D Jonas Brodin (lower body) and LW Marcus Johansson (concussion) are out. Utah D Robert Bortuzzo (lower body), D Sean Durzi (shoulder), RW Dylan Guenther (lower body) and D Maveric Lamoureux (upper body) are out.