The Minnesota Wild open the 2024-25 season tonight with a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Here is everything you need to know.
ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild open the 2024-25 season tonight with a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Here is everything you need to know before the game.
For the Wild, Jake Middleton and Matt Boldy practiced as they usually would and will both play tonight. Declan Chisholm is sick and will not play tonight.
The Wild sent down Jesper Wallstedt and recalled defenseman Daemon Hunt as insurance for Chisholm being out.
Filip Gustavsson will be the starter for the Wild. Marc-Andre Fleury will be the backup. If Fleury would have started for the Wild, he'd tie Martin Brodeur for the most season opening games played by a goalie in NHL history.
A win also would've passed Brodeur and Curtis Joseph for most by a goalie in a season opener in NHL history.
Former Wild head coach Dean Evason will be on the bench tonight for the Blue Jackets for their first game of the year. It also happens to be Evason's first game back in Minnesota.
Evason was the Wild's head coach from Feb. 15, 2020 to Nov. 26, 2023. He went 147-77-27 in 251 games over parts of five seasons as the head coach of the Wild.
The Wild are also expected to honor Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew on the video board before the game starts.
Here are tonight's projected lines.
Wild's Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Marco Rossi - Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno - Ryan Hartman - Yakov Trenin
Jakub Lauko - Marat Khusnutdinov - Freddy Gaudreau
Defense:
Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber
Jake Middleton - Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill - Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Liam Ohgren, Daemon Hunt
Injured: Declan Chisholm (sick)
Blue Jackets' Projected Lines
Yegor Chinakhov - Sean Monahan - Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk - Adam Fantilli - Kevin Labanc
Mikael Pyyhtia - Cole Sillinger - Kent Johnson
Zach Aston Reese - Sean Kuraly - Mathieu Olivier
Defense:
Zach Werenski - Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen - Damon Severson
Jack Johnson - Erik Gudbranson
Starting Goaltender: Elvis Merzlikins
Scratched: Dylan Gambrell, David Jiricek, Jordan Harris
Injured: Boone Jenner (upper-body), Dmitri Voronkov (upper-body), Gavin Brindley (upper-body), Justin Danforth (upper-body).
Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more.