DALLAS – Kirill Kaprizov, the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer, will miss tonight’s Wild game against the Stars.
Wild scoring leader Kirill Kaprizov won’t play tonight in Dallas
Kaprizov, who is the league’s fourth-leading scorer, has a lower-body injury and didn’t make the trip to Texas.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 28, 2024 at 12:44AM
The 27-year-old winger, who has 50 points in 34 games and is tied for second in the league with 23 goals, was sore going into the holiday break and did not travel with the team to Dallas on Friday morning after talking with doctors Thursday. He’s considered day to day because of a lower-body injury.
Last month, Kaprizov missed one game after a knee-on-knee hit from Edmonton’s Drake Caggiula, but Wild coach John Hynes said Kaprizov’s current issue isn’t related to that earlier injury.
During the Wild’s 4-3 win over Chicago on Monday that snapped their season-long, four-game losing streak, Kaprizov had a goal off five shots while skating 22 minutes, 9 seconds.
“I don’t have a big concern level as of now because he was a little bit banged up prior to going into the break,” Hynes said, “but we all saw how he played against Chicago. So, we’ll see what he does today with his treatments and things like that and see what he looks like for tomorrow.”
The Wild are also without center Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body), winger Jakub Lauko (lower body) and defenseman Jake Middleton (upper body). Hynes said Eriksson Ek will skate Friday in Minnesota and that Lauko and Middleton are progressing. After tonight, the Wild play at home Sunday against Ottawa and Tuesday vs. Nashville.
In Kaprizov’s absence, the Wild will elevate winger Matt Boldy to the top line alongside center Marco Rossi and winger Mats Zuccarello.
Goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who returned against the Blackhawks after sitting out four games because of a lower-body injury, will be back in net.
As the team prepared to face Ottawa, President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin said the injury to the MVP contender isn’t serious.
