WINNIPEG — For his first pregame warmup of his second stint with the Minnesota Wild, center Nico Sturm was wired up with a strap around his chest that holds a cardiac monitor.
With that, team trainers were keeping an eye on Sturm’s heartbeat and other vital signs during the 12 to 15 minutes he spent wearing a Wild game jersey, passing and shooting with teammates, with no intention of actually getting to play against the Penguins on Friday.
If Sturm was trying to conceal his excitement about getting back into a NHL game, biofeedback gave him away.
“They said I had a (heart) load for a full period out there,” Sturm said, speaking to reporters in the Pittsburgh press box as his future teammates overwhelmed the Penguins.
After returning to the Wild as a free agent this summer, Sturm suffered an injury on Day 1 of training camp. It required surgery.
“I always like to say as you play a lot more games in the league, the second I think you do that and it doesn’t feel special anymore is when you probably know that it’s time to hang them up,” Sturm said. “And I think I’m a long, long way from that.”
Sturm turned 30 in May, when he was in the midst of a Stanley Cup run with the Florida Panthers. Not long after the Cup parade in South Florida, he signed a contract with Minnesota and made arrangements to return to where it all started. He made his NHL debut with the Wild in 2019, after a long and winding road that included stops in his native Germany, in Texas, in southern Minnesota, in Nebraska, and upstate New York,
He played 120 games with the Wild over the course of four seasons.
After spending time with Colorado, San Jose and Florida, Sturm opted to come back to Minnesota and bring his renowned faceoff and penalty killing skills to the Wild. Then the injury happened, and his future was suddenly cast into doubt.
In missing the Wild’s first 22 games, Sturm will jump into the lineup in Winnipeg on Sunday for a team that has emphatically rejoined the Western Conference playoff picture by going 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
That’s a far cry from the 3-6-3 October that Sturm watched in street clothes.
“I think there’s a part in your career, I think especially early on, where you don’t want things to go too well when you’re not playing,” he said. “I mean, it’s the truth. You need your spot on the lineup. Teams that win all the time don’t make a ton of changes. And now I’m at a point in my career where all I want to do is win.
“So, it’s like I don’t care if I’m not in the lineup and we win. Hell, yeah. I’m fired up for the boys, especially with the way we started, and I want to play playoffs as soon I came here, so can’t be sitting and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah, we lost six games, but it’ll get better when I’m back in lineup.’ But we’ve got to make playoffs, so it doesn’t really matter.”
With Vinnie Hinostroza headed back to Minnesota with an injury, Sturm is a good bet to center the team’s third line between Yakov Trenin and Marcus Foligno when the Wild meet the Jets here for the first time this season.
Jets face a flight delay
The Jets announced Friday that star goalie Connor Hellebuyck will miss the next 4-6 weeks with because of what the team is calling minor knee surgery. Last season, Hellebuyck won 47 games and loaded up on NHL hardware, grabbing league honors for the top goalie and the most valuable player.
He was also the goalie of record as the Jets went 3-0-0 against the Wild.
For now, Eric Comrie and Thomas Milic are expected to be Winnipeg’s goalie tandem. For those wondering about the status of Team USA’s top goalie, it was pointed out that Hellebuyck is expected to be healthy in time for the 2026 Winter Olympics in February.
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