ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild are already without its superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov. Well, the hits keep coming. On Tuesday, the Wild announced that center Joel Eriksson Ek was placed on the Injured Reserve.
The Wild have had secondary scoring this year and have relied on young forwards like Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy to pick it up and produce in the absence of Kaprizov, and they have. But what Eriksson Ek brings is practically irreplaceable.
Eriksson Ek, 28 has nine goals and 28 points in 42 games this year. He is the team’s number one center for the top power play unit and is on the top penalty kill unit. When the game is on the line and the Wild need a goal or need to defend a lead late, you can bet Eriksson Ek is on the ice.
“You just have to go about your business the way we do it. You can only control what you can control, and I think we’ve shown it this year,” Wild head coach John Hynes said. “We have a next-man up mentality, and we have to get to the identity that gives us a good chance to win, and we’ve done that throughout the year. It’s unfortunate for Ekky himself, and unfortunate to lose him, but we gotta win with the guys we have.”
Eriksson Ek’s role will now be likely given to Freddy Gaudreau for a while until Ryan Hartman returns from his suspension.
Gaudreau, 31, is coming off a year in which he really struggled. The 6-foot center has picked it up this year though. In 57 games, Gaudreau has 11 goals and 25 points. He is a plus-2 as well. Last year he had five goals and 15 points in 67 games and was a minus-23.
Nonetheless, the Wild are going to be without two key pieces for who knows how long.
“I don’t particularly know yet what happened,” Hynes said on Eriksson Ek’s injury. “He practiced yesterday and later in the day, I got notice from the trainers that he was going to be out. I don’t know the actual extent other than it’s going to be a few weeks for sure, and exactly what it is yet. It wasn’t like one thing that happened where it was like, OK this happened. I was a little bit surprised when I got the news later yesterday.”
As Hynes said, Eriksson Ek practiced on Monday and went through the whole practice fine, according to him. But after, the trainers told Hynes he would be out with an injury.
The Wild called it a week-to-week injury to his lower body. Hynes said that Eriksson Ek will be out for a few weeks for sure. This doesn’t mean it will be just a few weeks though. It means it will be a few weeks at least.
This is where the options come in.
The Wild could put Eriksson Ek’s 5.25 Million AAV on Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) and go out and acquire a player at the Trade Deadline to replace Eriksson Ek. The only thing is, that means Eriksson Ek will be out for the rest of the season but can be taken off by the start of playoffs, assuming the Wild make it.
Or, you could put Kaprizov’s 9 million on LTIR and make a bigger splash on the trade market.
'We Think He's Gonna Be Out Longer Than We Expected': Kirill Kaprizov's Injury Will Keep Him Out Longer
ST. PAUL - Minnesota Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin said on <a href="https://www.iheart.com/live/kfan-fm-1003-1209/?pname=kfan.com&sc=dnsredirect">KFAN Radio on Friday</a> that Kirill Kaprizov is likely going to be out longer than expected.
With Eriksson Ek out, the Wild’s big need is for a center. Some pending free agent centers they could trade for include plus their cap hits: Brock Nelson ($6M), Sam Bennett ($4.25M), Jake Evans ($1.7M), Luke Kunin ($2.75M), Christian Dvorak ($4.45M), Alex Kerfoot ($3.5M), Pius Suter ($1.6M), and Nick Bjugstad ($2.1M).
Bennett is on a playoff team so it’s hard to imagine he’d be available. Nelson is on a team where a pending UFA is dealt for futures, five of the others aren’t really top-six centers anymore.
One player that I think should be intriguing is Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans. The 28-year-old center has 11 goals and 27 points in 57 games and can play on the penalty kill. He is 52.5% on the face-off dot as well which would lead the Wild by a lot. The next closest is Gaudreau at 50.1%.
Evans would likely cost a second round pick and maybe a prospect. He is youngish and likely wouldn’t cost more than 4 Million on his next deal but then again, Yakov Trenin got 3.5 million for four years.
The Wild could place either Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov on LTIR and try and swing a trade for a guy like Nelson or Brock Boeser, or they could stand still. This all depends on how long the two are out for. If Eriksson Ek is only out for 3-6 weeks then you wouldn’t place him on LTIR or replace him with a trade.
They also could stand still and wait for top prospect Danila Yurov to finish his season and have him come over here and play top-six. Or they could just elevate Ryan Hartman to these minutes.
It is worth noting that Yurov is currently injured and had surgery.
That being said, there will be some tough decisions that will have to be made within the next 10 days. The trade deadline is on March 7th. The decisions will all ride on the health of the two most important players on the Wild.
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