Wild reduces roster to 39 players; Wild's lineup vs. Winnipeg

With the Baby Wild's training camp starting today in Iowa, Minnesota executed its first big round of roster cuts this morning.

The Minnesota Wild reassigned 11 players -- 10 to Iowa to reduce its training-camp roster to 39 (really 38 because Josh Harding will ultimately be designated as a non-roster injured player).

The maximum NHL roster can be 23 players (minus players who started on injured reserve).

Iowa-bound: Corbin Baldwin, Brady Brassart, Raphael Bussieres, John Curry, Kurtis Gabriel, Alex Gudbranson, Johan Gustafsson, Colton Jobke, Zack Mitchell and Ryan Walters.

Defenseman Dylan Labbe, who truly impressed the brass in camp and looks like a player, was returned to QMJHL Shawinigan.

So the roster now looks like (by jersey number order):

Forwards (22): Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, Jordan Schroeder, Zach Parise, Cody Almond, Justin Fontaine, Jason Zucker, Stephane Veilleux, Kyle Brodziak, Nino Niederreiter, Matt Cooke, Thomas Vanek, Brett Sutter, Joel Rechlicz, Jason Pominville, Michael Keranen, Curt Gogol, Tyler Graovac, Brett Bulmer, Erik Haula, Zack Phillips and Mikael Granlund.

Defensemen (12): Keith Ballard, Stu Bickel, Christian Folin, Marco Scandella, Jon Blum, Ryan Suter, Gustav Olofsson, Jonas Brodin, Guillaume Gelinas (injured), Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba.

Goalies (5): Ilya Bryzgalov (tryout), Niklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Josh Harding (suspended), Brandon Whitney (invitee).

The Wild (0-1-1 in the preseason) hosts the Winnipeg Jets in its first home exhibition game Saturday night.

Thomas Vanek and Keith Ballard won't play because of injuries. Vanek is banged up from a check last night.

The game lineup: Parise, Granlund, Pominville, Niederreiter, Koivu, Coyle, Cooke, Haula, Fontaine, Brodziak, Keranen, Rechlicz, Suter, Brodin, Scandella, Spurgeon, Olofsson, Dumba, Backstrom, Kuemper.

Backstrom is expected to play the full 60.