Kirill Kaprizov’s return to Wild will take longer than expected; Ryan Hartman’s ban is reduced

Kirill Kaprizov’s recovery from surgery is taking longer than expected, but the Wild have to wait only a week to get Ryan Hartman back in action.

Hartman had his suspension for roughing Ottawa’s Tim Stützle reduced from 10 games to eight after the forward appealed to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who announced his decision Monday.

During a 6-0 loss to the Senators on Feb. 1, Hartman was ejected for intent to injure and later reprimanded by the league for “using his forearm to violently slam” Stützle’s head into the ice after the two squared off for a faceoff. This led to Hartman’s fifth career suspension and the stiffest punishment handed out by the NHL this season, which Hartman appealed Feb. 14 in Montreal.

In his ruling, Bettman agreed with the suspension and that Hartman’s actions were intentional against a player in a vulnerable position — Stützle suffered a cut above his left eye that required five stitches. But Bettman felt an increase of seven games from Hartman’s last suspension was “excessive” and believed eight games should be enough of a “wake-up call” for Hartman to make “positive changes to his game.”

Hartman was previously suspended three games for throwing his stick in the direction of officials while Vegas celebrated a 2-1 victory over the Wild last March 30.

His side identified players with similar histories who were either given a shorter ban for their fifth or sixth suspensions or an increase but not to the degree Hartman received. The NHL Players' Association, which appealed on Hartman’s behalf and requested a reduction to eight games, also mentioned prior roughing suspensions topped out at six games.

Having already sat out four games going into the Wild’s rematch vs. Detroit on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, Hartman is eligible to return March 4 at Seattle.

But when Kaprizov will rejoin the lineup is unclear.

The Wild’s leading scorer and star winger hasn’t played since Jan. 26 because of a lower-body injury that first interrupted his MVP-caliber season at the end of December.

Initially sidelined a month, Kaprizov returned to play three games before he was shut down for surgery. He was anticipated to be out a minimum of another four weeks, but there currently isn’t a timeline for his return; still, the team expects he will suit up at some point this season.

In the meantime, Jakub Lauko, who has missed the past three games with a lower-body injury, should be good to go, but to activate him off injured reserve the Wild will need to make a corresponding roster move.

“Guys have to step up,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “[Kaprizov] obviously scores a lot of goals and makes a lot of plays. So, yeah, obviously you would love to have your best player there to make the [playoff] push but glad he’s getting healthy.

“We’re still a very capable team when we play the right way and once he gets back, whenever he does, it’s going to give us that much more of a boost.”

Faber and winger Matt Boldy provided the Wild with a jolt in their return from the 4 Nations Face-Off to help the team win its first game back from the two-week break by rallying 4-3 in overtime at Detroit on Saturday.

After playing a game-high 28 minutes, 50 seconds in Team USA’s 3-2 overtime loss to Canada on Thursday, Faber skated 30:05 Saturday. He and Boldy were given Monday’s practice off, after Faber appropriately did “nothing” Sunday.

“It’s been crazy,” said Faber, who can appear in his second Olympics next year. “Definitely a game that you’re gonna think about [for] a long time. Such a cool experience. Obviously, we wanted to come home with a win, but it makes you that much more motivated and excited to hopefully get them again a year from now.”

The Maple Grove native and former Gopher finished the tournament on the U.S.’s top defensive pairing alongside Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin after Faber started lower in the lineup, and Boldy had a similar trajectory: The scorer debuted on the third line but led American forwards in ice time in the championship game.

Two days later, Boldy helped spark the Wild’s comeback vs. the Red Wings with a goal and assist — him and Faber showing no issues recalibrating to the Wild after representing their country.

“I’m still just a kid in the candy store wearing the Minnesota Wild gear and playing at the Xcel and playing with these guys,” Faber said. “It’s not a problem for me to get up and ready to hopefully make playoffs and go from there.”

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Red Wings update: Detroit fared better during its second trip to overtime in as many days. After botching a 4-on-3 power play in extra time before losing 4-3 to the Wild on Saturday, the Red Wings prevailed 5-4 against the Ducks on Sunday. Like the Wild, Anaheim rallied from a two-goal, third-period deficit to extend the action. But RW Patrick Kane nixed the Ducks’ comeback with his second goal of the game. Over his last 17 games, Kane has 21 points.

Injuries: Wild LW Kirill Kaprizov (lower body) is out. Red Wings C Andrew Copp (undisclosed), D Jeff Petry (undisclosed) and C Michael Rasmussen (upper body) are out.