Amid all of the good news about star forward Kirill Kaprizov’s contract extension, the Minnesota Wild revealed an injury update, which has been all too common of late: Veteran forward Mats Zuccarello, who has missed all of training camp, is expected to be unavailable for the next seven to eight weeks with a lower-body injury.
Zuccarello, who turned 38 on Sept. 1, was skating informally with teammates when he suffered the injury. He missed 13 games last season with a lower-body injury that required surgery after getting hit by a teammate’s shot in front of the Wild net during a November home game versus Montreal.
“Coming into camp, we knew that he wasn’t going to be ready. Now we have an exact timeline of his return,” Wild coach John Hynes said following the team’s Tuesday morning skate.
The coach also admitted some ramped-up competition for Zuccarello’s spot on the team’s first or second line, mentioning veterans such as Marcus Johansson and Marcus Foligno and younger players such as Liam Ohgren and Danila Yurov who could potentially fill in during Zuccarello’s absence.
Zuccarello finished fourth on the team offensively last season, notching 19 goals and 35 assists in 69 games. He had a goal and two assists in six playoff games.
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