Kirill Kaprizov Will Get Surgery ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild will be without their star forward Kirill Kaprizov for a good stretch of time. He missed practice on Tuesday after playing in the last three games. He had two assists in those three games but was feeling uncomfortable, Wild head coach John Hynes said. Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin addressed the media on Tuesday during Kaprizov's absence at practice and said he will get surgery on his lower-body injury. “Surgery is required," Guerin said. "Like I said, this is not a season-ending situation. It’s just something that really needs to be tended to. Like I said: Week to week. I’d say probably a minimum of four, and we’ll just go from there. It’s tough to say.” The Wild originally gave Kaprizov a day-to-day timetable when he was first hurt after Christmas break. But that turned into a month and 12 games missed. The Wild went 7-5-0 in that span without Kaprizov. He returned and played three games. The Wild went 1-2-0 in that span. Kaprizov still looked dangerous but you could tell he wasn't as explosive as he used to be. But Kaprizov, his agent, and Wild management felt it was best to just get surgery. The frustrating part about this was how careful the Wild were with his injury. The original timetable, when it happened, was day-to-day. They waited a month before they let Kaprizov play but he still isn't 100 percent. “Yeah, look: It’s disappointing. You can get mad. You can be sad. You can get frustrated all you want. It doesn’t fix it. You just have to handle it," Guerin said. "Being emotional about it doesn’t get you anywhere, so you know what? We’ve identified the problem. We’re going to get it fixed for him, and we move ahead.” It is easy to look at this and wonder what if they just got surgery right away? But this wasn't something they wanted to rush into. “No. It was more of a wait-and-see. You never want to jump into surgery," Guerin said. "You want to do everything you can to avoid it. It’s just invasive, and it just brings everything to a different level. But like I said: not season-ending, so that’s the good part of it.” It is never good when your star player is set to miss weeks. But the NHL is participating in a 4 Nations Tournament which seems to come at a perfect time for Kaprizov and the Wild. “Yeah, I think the timing actually works out well," Guerin said. "If there is a silver lining to any of this, that’s it. There’s pretty much a two-week break in the season, so that’s good.” The Wild have six games left before the two week break. Kaprizov is set to have surgery later this week then will be out a minimum of four weeks. The Wild's next game is the 22nd of February which is 25 days away. This isn't to say Kaprizov will miss only four weeks but it is safe to say he should be back in March when the Wild play 11 home games out of the 15 games. Should he be back before the season ends? “Yeah, hopefully," Guerin said. Nonetheless, this is a big test for the Wild who have been slipping in the standings recently. They currently sit in third in the Central Division with 62 points. The Colorado Avalanche sit in the first Wild Card spot with 60 points and the Calgary Flames are in the second Wild Card spot with 55 points. "Hey, look: We’ve been down this road before. It’s unfortunate. Kirill was having a Hart Trophy-type season. It’s disappointing for him. It’s disappointing for us, too, but we’ve put ourselves in a good position in the standings and the way we’re playing, and we just need to deal with the situation. It’s not the end of the world," Guerin said. "We’re going to keep playing and continue to get better, and when Kirill’s healthy and all healed up, he’ll be back and we’ll be even better. "Make no bones about it: We’re a better hockey team with Kirill in the lineup. There’s no arguing that, but this is the reality of professional sports and, like I said, we’ll deal with it. We’re a good team, especially when we play a certain way, and we’ll be all right.” Let us know what you think by commenting below or on the Forum [https://thehockeynews.rtb.io/minnesota-wild/posts]. Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/minnesota-wild/] for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more. Follow Dylan Loucks on Blue Sky [https://bsky.app/profile/dylanloucks.bsky.social] and Twitter (X). [https://twitter.com/DylanLoucks4?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor]
