Wild Activate Kirill Kaprizov Off Injured Reserve

The Wild have activated leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov off injured reserve prior to tonight’s game against the Coyotes, per a team announcement.

Tonight will be Kaprizov’s first game since sustaining an upper-body injury on a cross-check from Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon on December 30th. He re-enters the lineup after missing seven games and two weeks.

Kaprizov isn’t the only big name returning for Minnesota tonight, either. Netminder Filip Gustavsson was activated off IR earlier in the day projects to start for the first time since December 30 as well.

Despite missing a significant chunk of the past few weeks, Kaprizov still leads the team with 34 points. That’s made up of 13 goals, tied for third behind Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek (who each have 15) and 21 assists, which ranks second behind linemate Mats Zuccarello’s 24.

Without Kaprizov, Gustavsson and even Zuccarello for a stretch of games, the Wild have once again fallen out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference. Including the December 30 game, the Wild are 1-6-1 in their past eight games, dropping to 17-19-5 on the season and seventh in the Central Division. In doing so, they’ve undone nearly all the work done by a hot start under new head coach John Hynes, who replaced former bench boss Dean Evason in mid-November. As such, their playoff chances are down to under six percent, per Hockey Reference.

A small part of the Wild’s struggles has been due to a step back in production from Kaprizov. The fourth-year NHLer produced at a 1.24 point-per-game clip over the past two seasons, but is down to 1.00 points per game this year. He’s also dropped to 0.38 goals per game this season, the lowest per-game rate of his career.

What hasn’t declined is his two-way game. He’s recorded a Corsi share of 54% at even strength, a whopping 4.5% increase from the Wild’s Corsi share without Kaprizov on the ice. As such, he’s still undoubtedly the Wild’s most important skater and makes a huge splash in their chances of turning their season around.