The Minnesota Wild lost key centerman Joel Eriksson Ek to injury in Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken. Eriksson Ek sustained the injury after getting tangled up with another player near his bench, but avoided the worst case scenario, head coach John Hynes told Sara McLellan of the Star Tribune. Eriksson Ek will be questionable for Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders.
Minnesota will be noticeably shorthanded without Eriksson Ek in the lineup. His veteran, two-way presence has served as a pillar of the Wild’s center depth, allowing more offensively-inclined centers like Danila Yurov and Ryan Hartman a bit more room to play downhill. Eriksson Ek has offered that support while putting up strong scoring of his own – 11 goals and 32 points in 45 games, good for fourth on the team in total scoring. He is one of six Wild players to appear in every game so far this season, a streak that could change on Saturday night.
The Wild will need to push extra forward Tyler Pitlick into action if Eriksson Ek has to sit. Pitlick is back in the NHL this season after spending the entirety of the 2024-25 campaign with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. He has had a quiet showing in Minnesota, so far with only one goal and 24 penalty minutes in 23 games. Pitlick will fill a minimal, fourth-line role in the lineup while Marcus Foligno and Hartman earn a bump in minutes. Hartman has three points in his last five games and could bring a spark to the top-six in Eriksson Ek’s place. That is what the Wild will have to hope for as they look to snap a scoring funk. Three of Minnesota’s last five games have gone to overtime, with two ending in shootout losses.