Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury, the team announced Tuesday.
Zuccarello didn't play Monday in Pittsburgh or Tuesday in Boston, and his absence adds to the Wild's injury woes.
The Wild were already without top blueliners Jonas Brodin (upper-body injury) and Jared Spurgeon (lower-body injury). The Wild placed Brodin on long-term injured reserve back on Dec. 13, which requires him to miss a minimum of 10 games and 24 days.
Spurgeon is also week-to-week and hasn't played the last four games. Now with Zuccarello out week-to-week, the Wild are facing their toughest test yet this season. These injuries have come at an inopportune time as the Wild have turned their season around with eight wins in 11 games under John Hynes and are back in the wild card race.
Zuccarello is one of the Wild's best playmakers and a key cog in their top-six. He's off to one of his best starts in his career this season with 28 points in 28 games, which leads the Wild. Not to mention he was on pace for a career-high 82 points before this injury.
There's no question that he's been one of the Wild's most impactful forwards this season. With Zuccarello on the ice in all situations, the Wild have outscored the opposition 34-23 and have controlled 64.23 of the Corsi share and 69.69 percent of the expected goal share.
The Wild have had injury trouble all season, but the absence of three of their top players at such a critical time of the season is the peak.
The Wild are going to need players to step up in his absence and so far that’s happened. Ryan Hartman, who is playing in Zuccarello’s spot on the second line, has a goal in two straight games. Marcus Johansson scored Tuesday for the first time since Oct. 21, and Kirill Kaprizov had the type of performance (two goals including the overtime winner) that could help him get on a roll.
All data via Natural Stat Trick