Wild expected to make first call-up for first road trip

Aaron Heckmann

Oct 11, 2023

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Aaron Heckmann

Oct 11, 2023

featured

Why can the Wild finish in the top-3 in a more competitive Central?

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild will make their first call-up of the season from the Iowa Wild by tomorrow, head coach Dean Evason said after practice on Wednesday.

The Wild begin their season at home against the Florida Panthers tomorrow before their first road trip of the season, which features games against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

"We have to obviously protect ourselves from anything that could happen prior to a game," Evason said, adding they don't want to be shorthanded in case a player is sick and can't play.

Evason wouldn't give details as to who will be called up. "We're still going through that process," he said.

Regardless, this will give Minnesota an extra body on their road trip since Jared Spurgeon is out of the lineup due to injury.

Minnesota only has $822,359 in cap space, according to PuckPedia. So, if you do the math, the Wild have only one option defensively and six forwards they can afford.

Dakota Mermis ($775,000) is the only defenseman the Wild can afford to call-up right now, while they have more options offensively in Jujhar Khaira ($775,000), Vinni Lettieri ($775,000), Nic Petan ($762,500), Steven Fogarty ($762,500), Nick Swaney ($775,000) and Jake Lucchini (775,000).

• Evason won't reveal yet whether Filip Gustavsson (22-9-7 and .931 save percentage last season) or Marc-Andre Fleury (24-16-4 and .908 SV%) will start tomorrow on opening night.

• Evason said they completed one-on-one meetings with players the past few days, where they were "defining everybody's role," he said.

"I think it's important not only for the players to — and we talked about this earlier in camp — just understand their role, but that doesn't mean they got to stay in that role," Evason said. "Every player has an opportunity to elevate that role, but we need them obviously to commit to the role that the organization (and) the team feels that they're best suited to help the hockey club win games.

"But it's also more important for us to open it up to them for communication, to have a quick chat, so that everybody feels comfortable to walk through the coaches room doors whenever they feel they need to do that."

• BONUS: "We like the structure of our groups," Evason said. "Not only our 12 forwards, but our six defensemen and obviously we got two goaltenders that we feel very confident in."