The Minnesota Wild’s selection of a promising young defenseman in Round 2 of the NHL Draft on Saturday was all about what the blue line may look like in two or three years. As for the current state of the team’s defensive corps, general manager Bill Guerin is happy and optimistic about what they have in place, despite some news that seems to auger less back end depth in the short term.
After grabbing five players in Rounds 2-5 of the NHL draft on Saturday, Guerin met with reporters and revealed that veteran defenseman Jonas Brodin might not be ready for training camp in September — or even the start of the regular season in October.
Brodin, who turns 32 in July, missed more than 30 of the Wild’s regular-season games in 2024-25 with various injuries but was healthy for a six-game postseason appearance. He skated for Team Sweden in the World Championship in April, but an upper body injury that flared up in the spring meant a recent surgery, and a recovery time of at least a few months.
Brodin had four goals and 16 assists in 50 regular-season games last season.
“We’re hoping he gets back for the beginning of the season. I would imagine that he’s probably going to miss a little bit,” Guerin said. “It was just something that kind of flared up on him again. He could have had it done during the season, but then it started feeling better.”
The team isn’t offering details on the nature of the injury, same as with Kirill Kaprizov’s lower body injury last season. Both players wound up opting for surgery to more thoroughly fix a problem.
“One of those things where you can leave it alone, it might be fine, and then you can leave it alone and it might not,” Guerin said. “After the World Championship, he was working out and it just started to flare up on him. So, we decided to get it done.”
Still, even with October in question, Guerin listed Brodin among the core seven defensemen they expect to have on the roster on opening night, whenever that is (the full NHL schedule for 2025-26 will be released on July 16).
After the Wild traded Declan Chisholm to Washington on Saturday, and with unrestricted free agent Jon Merrill a longshot to be re-signed, the seven-man Wild blue line squad looks to consist primarily of Brodin, Brock Faber, Jared Spurgeon, Zach Bogosian, Jake Middleton, David Jiricek and rookie Zeev Buium — although Guerin said the team may pick up blue line help after free agency opens Tuesday.
“We’re pretty comfortable with the seven,” Guerin said. “I mean, we know what they can do. I think to add a little bit of depth is something that we’re going to do, but we’re comfortable with the seven.”
Jiricek and Buium are both young, 21 and 19, respectively, and have played a combined total of 10 games for the Wild. But Guerin said he’s comfortable with the promise they have shown, and mentioned young blue line prospects such as David Spacek and Carson Lambos as injury fill-ins available at Iowa.
Spacek, whose father, Jaroslav, played more than 900 games for seven NHL teams over a 13-season career, is 21 and has yet to make his NHL debut. But Guerin spoke highly of his play for Team Czechia at the World Championship in April. Lambos, 22, spent a few games traveling with the NHL club last season when injuries thinned the blue line, but is still looking for his first game in a NHL uniform, as well.
Both players logged serious minutes on defense for Iowa last season.
“They’ve put in some solid time down there, and they’ve gotten better,” Guerin said. “For defensemen, you guys know, it’s usually a little bit of a longer road. But they’ve shown improvement every year.”
Among the notable blue line names expected to be available on the free agent market come are former Wild players Brent Burns and John Klingberg, and a pair of former Gophers: Ryan Lindgren from Lakeville, and Nate Schmidt from St. Cloud, who won his first Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers this month.
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