After recovering from a serious injury to his chest and shoulder, Travis Boyd was a free agent looking for an NHL team that would look at his long resume and say, “This is just the kind of guy we need.”

That team just happened to be the one Boyd grew up watching.

“If I’m fortunate enough to make the team, running onto the ice that first game and to hear the announcer say, ‘Here come your Minnesota Wild,’ I mean, I got the chills going down the back of my neck just saying that out loud,” he said.

Boyd, 31, is one of a handful of NHL veterans the Wild brought in this summer, mostly as free agents, to help shore up its depth after missing the postseason for just the second time in 12 seasons last year.

The four-year Gophers player from Hopkins, a sixth-round entry draft pick by Washington in 2011, has 47 goals and 118 points in 296 NHL games and a Stanley Cup ring from his rookie season in Washington, where he played in eight games, including a big postseason win at Pittsburgh, as a rookie in 2017-18.

Boyd was scheduled to play in his second preseason game Wednesday night in Dallas. He earned an assist in the Wild’s first exhibition, a 5-2 victory at Winnipeg last weekend. He signed a one-year, two-way contract on July 1 after missing most of 2023-24 with a serious pectoral injury, “torn off,” in his words, on a check into the boards by Colorado’s Josh Manson.

The two-way deal is Boyd’s first in seven years.

“This is my 10th training camp, so I’ve been doing it for a while,” he said after a morning practice at TRIA Rink on Wednesday. “Knowing going into this season that this could easily be my last chance to stay around in this league, with how many good players there are and how many young kids come in every year, my goal was to be ready (on) Day 1 of camp, and I really feel like I’ve put a good foot forward.”

He certainly has made the right impression on a coaching staff eager to add veteran depth. Whether those players start the season in St. Paul or Iowa, there will be opportunities to play NHL minutes at some point. Because of injuries, the Wild used seven forwards who started the season at Iowa last year, and nine of them made much of an impact, finishing with a combined eight goals and 21 in 132 games.

Shoring up the minor league depth — and the production from the bottom six in general — was a big part of the team’s offseason agenda. They signed Boyd, Brendan Gaunce and Reese Johnson, and traded Vinnie Lettieri (5-4–9 in 46 games last season) to Boston for Jakub Lauko.

“I think we’ve found the style of players, the roles they can play in, the experience that they have that we feel, if they’re in Iowa, they’re going to be really good players and good leaders,” head coach John Hynes said. “They play the game the right way, they’ve got some size, their competitiveness, their skill. And then I think when they come up — some of these guys have 300, 200 games in the NHL — and they know what their roles are. So, we feel really good about that.”

Johnson, who had two goals and five points in 42 games last season in Chicago, has been sidelined by an upper body injury, but Boyd, Lauko and Gaunce have been impressive early.

Boyd was settling into a good place with the Coyotes, playing his first 82-game season in 2022-23, and a strong 2-6–8 in 16 games last year before he was injured on Nov. 30. When he was hurt, coach Andre Tourigny was effusive in his praise for the veteran center.

“I have a lot of good things to say about him,” Tourigny told reporters on Dec. 2. “He changed his role from last year and over the last two years. … This year he had to play bottom six and be very responsible defensively and he was an example. We were joking a lot when talking about ‘Coach Boyd’ and he was so textbook on his positioning and on everything defensively.”

Boyd has been able to live at home with his family in Edina during camp, a rare luxury, and was feeling good about his camp so far ahead of Wednesday night’s game — his second game of any kind since completing a long, arduous rehabilitation process.

“It’s been challenging. It’s been tiring. I think it’s been a good set of days for everybody,” he said. “I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’ve put in a lot of good work.”

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When he woke up on Wednesday, Byron Buxton’s wife, Lindsey, let him know that he was about to hit a major personal milestone.

When he took the field against the Marlins, it marked just the second time in Buxton’s major league career that he’s played in 100 games in a season. Buxton has often been slowed by injuries throughout his career, and while he’s dealt with some this year, as well, he’s also been on the field more than he has in recent years.

“I made it a goal of mine at the beginning of the season, just something small to hit triple digits,” Buxton said. “It’s exciting.”

The milestone, he said, is not just one for himself, but one for his family, as well. It’s also an accomplishment for the Twins’ training staff, as they worked in concert with the 30-year-old to keep him healthy. This season will represent the most games he’s played since playing 140 in 2017.

The center fielder had surgery on his right knee after both the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Last year, he played zero games in center field as the Twins tried to manage the sore knee. This season, the Twins mixed in some designated hitter days for him with some off days, but by and large, he’s been out there in center field most days.

“The schedule that he had worked for him this year. He would play two or three or four and then we would have to give him a day and we’d work on him and get him ready to go and then we’d send him back out there for the rest of the week,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think it worked well. I’ve been very pleased with the way he’s handled it, the way he’s worked and the way our training staff has been able to help him.”

Buxton landed on the injured list in May when his knee flared up. A second injured list stint, this one for his hip, kept him out for a month. One of the toughest things for him when he was on the injured list, he said, was wondering if he was going to be able to get back in time to reach 100 games.

It was clear Buxton wasn’t at 100% when he returned, but as he so often has, he’s pushed through it to be available to try to help his team.

“He’s worked very hard. He is a tough dude and he has put a lot into taking the field as much as he possibly can this year,” Baldelli said. “He’s not a player that needs to be pushed to get out there on the field. More times than not you have to pull him back off the field from playing flat-out injured sometimes. He does his part with the work he puts in and his desire to play every single day.”

Twins shake up roster

Justin Topa’s regular season is beginning and Matt Wallner’s is ending.

The Twins activated Topa, a right-handed reliever who has been on the injured list all season, on Wednesday and placed Wallner, one of their best hitters of late, on the injured list with a left oblique strain suffered in Tuesday’s game.

“I just felt like it was going to get worse if I kept going and they said the same thing,” Wallner said.

For Topa, it’s been a long time coming after a knee injury first landed him on the injured list and then he dealt with an elbow issue as he built his way back. The Twins acquired him as part of the Jorge Polanco deal with the Seattle Mariners last offseason, hoping he could fill an important role within the bullpen.

“Just salvaging anything is going to be a win this year for me,” Topa said. “Obviously, injuries and feeling good the second go-around with the knee, and then arm stuff popped up. And with my history, it’s like, ‘Let’s make sure this isn’t anything serious serious.’ But yeah, just being able to get back, whether it’s for a few games or whatever it is here down the stretch, it’s definitely awesome.”

The Twins also recalled utilityman Austin Martin and reliever Jorge Alcala from Triple-A and optioned reliever Brent Headrick and designated Cole Irvin, whom they just picked up last week off waivers, for assignment.

Briefly

The Twins will send David Festa to the mound for the series finale against the Miami Marlins against Valente Bellozo.

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A 45-year-old motorcyclist died in a crash on Minnesota 36 in Little Canada on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

A Hyundai Tucson and the motorcycle were both heading east on Highway 36 near Rice Street, approaching Interstate 35E about 3 p.m. The Hyundai was stopped in the right lane for traffic when the motorcycle collided with the vehicle, the State Patrol said.

The State Patrol said it will release the name of the motorcyclist, who was from Roseville, later Wednesday.

The two people in the Hyundai were uninjured.

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The most impressive moment receiver Jalen Nailor has put on tape during his emergence with the Vikings happened so fast that most people probably missed it.

Fitting. His nickname is Speedy after all.

It wasn’t the notable patience he displayed on a 21-yard touchdown against the New York Giants. It wasn’t the incredible athleticism he showed while contorting his body on a 26-yard gain against the San Francisco 49ers. It wasn’t the crisp route he ran or the contested catch he made on a 4-yard touchdown against the Houston Texans.

No. It was how incredibly fast Nailor looked while chasing down star receiver Justin Jefferson on a 97-yard touchdown against the 49ers that set U.S. Bank Stadium ablaze. Just go back and watch the replay and pay attention to how much ground Nailor covers in pursuit.

“I had him about 30 yards behind Justin when he caught that ball,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “I thought Speedy’s finish to escort him into the end zone was phenomenal.”

Though most people have become familiar with Nailor this season as the third-year player has carved out a niche for himself in Minnesota, the legend of Speedy was born a couple of decades ago about an hour north of Los Angeles.

As an undersized kid playing Pop Warner for the Lancaster Jets, Nailor was without a doubt the fastest kid on the field. His father Jay Nailor remembers being slightly nervous watching his son play until he realized that nobody could catch him.

His peers started calling him Speedy, for obvious reasons, and the nickname became synonymous with Nailor. It’s followed him every step of his career, including now with the Vikings, where he has emerged as an important part of the offense.

“I feel like Speedy has game speed,” quarterback Sam Darnold said. “Just the way he’s able to go play fast and make plays has showed up on game days.”

That’s something former Bishop Gorman head coach Kenny Sanchez noticed about Nailor when he arrived at the prep school in Las Vegas.

“Well, there were people calling him Speedy, so we had a pretty good idea he was going to be fast,” Sanchez said with a laugh. “We noticed it as soon as he got into the field. You can’t teach that type of speed. It was in his DNA.”

That speed helped Nailor dominate at Bishop Gorman. He scored 28 touchdowns, earning several scholarship offers in the process before committing to Michigan State.

“We played against some really good competition,” Sanchez said. “There were always bunch of talented guys chasing him around in the secondary and it never mattered because he was so fast.”

It wasn’t long after arriving at Michigan State that Nailor started to live up to his nickname. He quickly established himself as a deep threat for the Spartans, and while he battled injuries throughout his time in college, he finished his tenure with 86 receptions for 1,454 yards and 12 touchdowns.

That production was enough for the Vikings to take a chance on Nailor in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Naturally, Nailor made a good first impression largely because of his speed, and the Vikings were bullish on developing him into a complete player although injuries continue to be an issue.

The payoff has come over the past few weeks as Nailor has stepped up in place of the injured Jordan Addison. As the secondary option behind Justin Jefferson, Nailor has caught a touchdown in back-to-back-to-back games.

“We’ve been excited about Speedy ever since we got him,” offense coordinator Wes Phillips said. “When he’s been available for us, he’s been consistently able to win and separate, and we’ve got a lot of trust in him.”

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