Central Notes: Bedard, Wild, Blues
Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard will not play tonight against Edmonton, as noted by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, as the star is dealing with the flu.
The bug has ravaged the team of late, as several players have been affected, most notably both goaltenders, Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom, leaving Chicago with AHL call-up Drew Commesso to handle a back-to-back last week. He managed to steal a game, shutting out Nashville on Saturday, but now the face of the franchise has to sit out tonight in a big home game against the Oilers.
Bedard leads the Hawks with 46 points, despite playing in 33 of their 45 games. He has surpassed the point-per-game mark for the first time in his young career, as well as avoiding a sunk +/- rating as the Hawks have had success this season. The hope is that he will be feeling better by their next game, Thursday against Calgary. In the meantime, grinder Colton Dach slots back into the lineup on the fourth line, who has posted eight points in 44 games on the season.
Elsewhere across the division:
- Joel Eriksson Ek and Zach Bogosian skated earlier today, as shared by Michael Russo of The Athletic, but neither are playing tonight against the Devils. Eriksson Ek was injured against Seattle last Thursday, missing Saturday’s contest against the Islanders, the first time he was unable to go this season. The center plays a vital role on both ends of the ice, with 32 points in 45 games, and hopefully can return by Thursday against Winnipeg. On the other hand, Bogosian is on injured reserve. The 35-year-old hasn’t played since January 3, dealing with an undisclosed ailment.
- St. Louis Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery told reporters, including Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, that Robert Thomas is “probable/questionable” for Tuesday against Carolina. Thomas has a lower-body injury, missing practice today as a result, but he hasn’t lost any game time, posting a goal and an assist on Saturday. Playing in 42 of the club’s 46 contests so far, Thomas leads the Blues in scoring by a wide margin, with 33 points. Losers of three in a row, St. Louis currently ranks dead last in goals scored, in obvious need of their top center to try and make the postseason this spring. Meanwhile, teammate Mathieu Joseph is also day-to-day with an elbow infection, as reported by Rutherford. Joseph has 10 points in 35 games as a bottom six forward.
Latest On Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman
Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek suffered a lower-body injury against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 8, and missed his team’s game Saturday against the New York Islanders. Per The Athletic’s Joe Smith, Eriksson Ek’s injury is “considered minor,” and the team will likely have an update on his status on Monday. He’s currently out on a day-to-day timeline, and it appears unlikely that will change.
From the Wild’s perspective, they are likely counting themselves lucky that Eriksson Ek is only facing a minor absence. The 28-year-old is the Wild’s best center, a status made all the more important due to the team’s trade of Marco Rossi to the Vancouver Canucks. The trade of Rossi, who scored 60 points last season, has left the Wild somewhat thin down the middle, though the continued growth of Danila Yurov has helped. Eriksson Ek has scored 32 points in 45 games this season and leads all Wild forwards in short-handed time on ice per game.
- Dodging a significant injury to Eriksson Ek isn’t the only good fortune the Wild have received in recent days. Veteran forward Ryan Hartman temporarily left yesterday’s game against the Islanders after blocking a shot on his left ankle, but he ultimately was able to return to the game, and Wild head coach John Hynes told the media, per Smith, that Hartman “seemed okay.” Hartman ranks No. 6 among Wild forwards in time on ice per game this season, and has 11 goals, 18 points this season. The 31-year-old is under contract at a $4MM AAV through 2026-27.
Wild Recall Ben Jones, Place Zach Bogosian On IR
With Joel Eriksson Ek dealing with an undisclosed injury sustained on Thursday, the Wild needed some depth up front. That will come from winger Ben Jones as the team announced that they’ve recalled him from AHL Iowa. To make room on the roster, defenseman Zach Bogosian has been placed on injured reserve according to Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Jones has spent the bulk of this season in Minnesota. The 26-year-old has played in 20 games, predominantly on their fourth line. However, while he has brought plenty of physicality with 47 hits, he’s still looking for his first point. That extends to his previous NHL stints as Jones has zero points in 48 career NHL appearances, all but two coming with Minnesota over the past two seasons.
That hasn’t been the case in the minors, however. Jones has three goals and three assists in eight games with Iowa and is coming off a 13-goal, 36-point showing in 2024-25. Jones cleared waivers in mid-December and has only been up for two days and played in one game so his 10-game, 30-day exemption clock largely remains intact.
As for Bogosian, he has missed the last week with an undisclosed injury. Assuming the placement is back-dated, he’ll be eligible to be activated as soon as Minnesota needs him as he’ll have already served the seven-day requirement. The 35-year-old has played in 23 games this season, picking up a goal and three assists while averaging 14:52 per night of ice time.
Wild Place Matt Kiersted On Waivers
Earlier this week, the Wild ran veteran Tyler Pitlick through waivers without sending him down, simply to restart his 10-game, 30-day exemption period. It appears they’re doing that once again as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Matt Kiersted is on waivers.
The 27-year-old is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a two-year, two-way contract (carrying a $775K AAV) with them on the second day of free agency last summer. A veteran of 41 NHL appearances heading into the season, the expectation was that he’d be a key piece in Iowa and a serviceable performer in a depth role if needed with the big club.
So far, things have largely played out that way. Kiersted has played in 23 games with Iowa this season and while his offensive numbers aren’t anything to get excited about with just three assists, he played a big role, especially defensively. That earned him a recall in the second week of December and he has been with Minnesota since then.
Playing time has been hard to come by since joining Minnesota as Kiersted has only played in four games so far. He has an assist and five blocked shots in those outings while picking up five blocked shots in 13:42 per night of ice time. While he hasn’t reached the 10-game mark, he has been up for 30 days, meaning his waiver exemption has expired.
Assuming that Kiersted passes through unclaimed for the second time this season (the other was in training camp), Minnesota can either keep him up in the reserve role he has been filling lately or return him to Iowa and open up some additional salary cap and roster flexibility.
Wild’s Joel Eriksson Ek Day-To-Day With Undisclosed Injury
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.
Wild Activate Daemon Hunt, Assign David Jiricek
The Minnesota Wild announced earlier today that Daemon Hunt has been activated from injured reserve, while David Jiříček has been re-assigned to AHL Iowa in a corresponding transaction. Hunt is expected to return to the lineup tonight on the third pair alongside Jacob Middleton.
The defenseman has been out since mid-December due to an undisclosed injury. Claimed off waivers from Columbus in October, today’s transaction proves to be a bit ironic as Hunt was traded by Minnesota to Columbus in exchange for Jiříček last year alongside several draft picks.
Unable to make his mark as a Blue Jacket after the trade, Hunt quickly found his way back to the team that chose him in the third round of the 2020 draft. With two points in 12 games on the season, Hunt has some puck moving ability, untapped so far at the NHL level, but at age 23, he figures to be a steady third pair defender, still with just 25 games under his belt.
Jiříček, thought to have elite upside coming out of the 2022 draft, where he was selected sixth overall by Columbus, has been scoreless in 18 games with the Wild this season. Taking a swing on the Czech righty seemed to be worth a gamble, especially as Minnesota promptly snatched back the player they’d given up for him, but at some point Jiříček will need to show something to warrant a future in the NHL. A restricted free agent at season’s end, Jiříček’s play with Iowa has not inspired much confidence either, with 10 points in 40 games across the last two seasons. With offense hard to come by, the 6’4″ Jiříček has also struggled in his own end, ineffective even in smaller sheltered roles on Minnesota, a team with high ambitions.
Still just 22, the Wild are not necessarily in any rush with him, but as a contender with limited spots on their back end going into the future, Jiříček may be a name worth monitoring this spring in another deal.
For now, Hunt will rejoin the high flying Wild against Seattle tonight, while Jiříček will try to help the bottom-ranked Iowa Wild get on track, vying for another shot in the NHL.
Wild Place Tyler Pitlick On Waivers
The Wild have placed forward Tyler Pitlick on waivers, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Whether he’ll be assigned to AHL Iowa if he clears remains to be seen. The Wild have already waived Pitlick once this season solely with the intention of resetting his waiver-exempt clock rather than removing him from the roster.
Pitlick, 34, now has more than a decade of experience in the NHL. Once a journeyman bottom-six staple, he’d faded into press box/call-up territory in recent years but has found a bit more stability in Minnesota this season. He didn’t see NHL ice at all in 2024-25, spending most of the year on an AHL contract in the Bruins organization, before landing a two-way deal from the Wild last offseason.
The Minneapolis native peaked as a bottom-six player with some penalty-killing ability in the late 2010s, once recording a career-high 14 goals and 27 points with the Stars in 2017-18. Overall, he’s averaged 11 goals and 20 points per 82 games in his NHL career, but has just one goal in 23 games for the Wild this year.
Averaging 7:49 of ice time per game, he’s the Wild’s least-used forward and ranks near the bottom of the team with a 41.2% Corsi share at even strength. He does rank fourth on the club with 58 hits, at least bringing a physical element to Minnesota’s fourth line.
He’ll now be available for 31 other teams to grab, but after already clearing waivers once in-season, he’s a safe bet to remain in the organization. With Minnesota’s forward group at full health, he’s been a healthy scratch in nine straight and appears set for a press-box role for the foreseeable future.
Minnesota Wild Recall David Jiricek
According to a team announcement, the Minnesota Wild have recalled defenseman David Jiříček from the AHL’s Iowa Wild. The Wild now have a full 23-man roster, with eight of them being defensemen.
Jiříček’s story in the NHL is well known at this point. The Wild acquired the former sixth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft from the Columbus Blue Jackets last season for a 2025 first-round pick, 2027 second-round pick, 2026 third-round pick, 2026 fourth-round pick, and defenseman Daemon Hunt, who has since re-joined the Wild.
Still, Jiříček, 22, has yet to break out in any meaningful way with Minnesota. He looked promising in his first professional season with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, scoring six goals and 38 points in 55 games with a -11 rating. He hasn’t come close to achieving that level of performance again.
In fact, the way his tenure with the Wild has begun is similar to how his time with the Blue Jackets ended. Jiříček was frequently moved between the NHL and AHL lineup, failing to provide any continuity in the early stages of his development. He now finds himself in the same situation with the Wild.
During the 2025-26 season, Jiříček has played 18 games for Minnesota and 13 games for Iowa. He’s only scored with the latter, posting a goal and two assists with a -8 rating. His limited output in the NHL may be due to averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time per game when he plays.
There’s little indication he’s poised for an offensive breakout either. Throughout his tenure with the Wild, he’s only managed a 46.3% CorsiFor% at even strength, which is slightly worse than what he averaged with Columbus. However, his defensive play has improved, averaging a 94.3% on-ice SV% at even strength.
Regardless, given that the Wild are dealing with a few injuries on defense to Hunt and Zach Bogosian, Jiříček should find his way into the lineup for the time being. However, once one of them returns, he’s likely headed back for another extended stay with AHL Iowa.
Minnesota Wild Reassign David Jiricek
The Minnesota Wild have made a change to their defensive core ahead of tomorrow’s matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Wild announced that they’ve reassigned defenseman David Jiříček to the AHL’s Iowa Wild.
It’s the third time the former sixth overall pick has been demoted this season. Jiříček, 22, has played in 18 games for the Wild this season in a depth role, going scoreless while averaging 12:08 of ice time per game. He’s fared somewhat better with AHL Iowa, scoring one goal and three points in 10 games with a -6 rating.
- The Winnipeg Jets are dealing with some injury concerns to a significant player from last night’s loss to the Wild. According to analyst Mitchell Clinton, defenseman Josh Morrissey is considered day-to-day after taking a high hit last night. The Jets’ next game is tomorrow against the Edmonton Oilers, and Morrissey’s status for that contest is very much in question.
Wild Acquire Boris Katchouk
The Wild announced they’ve acquired left winger Boris Katchouk from the Lightning in exchange for fellow lefty Michael Milne. Both players were on minor-league assignments and will report to their new affiliates in AHL Iowa and Syracuse, respectively.
While the trade is a relatively routine one-for-one swap of minor-league forwards, there’s an unusual gap between where Katchouk and Milne are in their development. At 27, Katchouk is a higher-floor, lower-ceiling call-up option for a Minnesota squad that’s struggled to field a competitive farm team in Iowa for the past several seasons.
Katchouk was a second-round pick by Tampa back in 2016 and bounced around quite a bit before returning to the Bolts on a two-way deal last offseason. He was coming off a 21-goal, 49-point resurgence in 67 games for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while on a minor-league deal.
So far, those numbers haven’t carried over into Katchouk’s second stint in the Lightning organization. He’s been limited to four goals and 10 points in 21 games with Syracuse, tied only for 10th on the team in scoring.
Katchouk did get a brief recall earlier this season, making three appearances for Tampa in November, his first NHL action since 2023-24 with the Blackhawks and Senators. He posted zeros across the board, going 7-for-19 (36.8%) on faceoffs as the Bolts opted to deploy the natural winger down the middle.
The 6’2″, 212-lb Katchouk has 15 goals, 21 assists, 36 points, and a -23 rating in 179 career NHL appearances for Tampa, Chicago, and Ottawa. That’s 178 more than what Milne has. The 23-year-old was a third-round selection by Minnesota in 2022.
The Bolts thus net a potential higher-upside piece but one without the experience of slotting in as a bottom-six piece if needed, like Katchouk. Milne’s lone NHL game came last season on Nov. 16, 2024, against the Stars, recording three hits in 6:34 of ice time.
He didn’t get his season underway in Iowa until the beginning of November due to an undisclosed injury. Since returning, he’s managed five points and a -11 rating in 15 games.
A couple of years ago, it looked like the British Columbia native might be able to pan out as a bottom-six energy piece in Minnesota. A good skater with great endurance, he scored 21 points in just 40 games for Iowa in 2023-24 but hasn’t been able to recapture that offensive pace ever since.
The Lightning now take a flyer on him, parting ways with a familiar replacement piece to do so. There’s no impact on either team’s cap or roster situation since they were both in the minors at the time of the swap. Milne’s minor-league salary is $100K, and he’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season. Katchouk is owed a $250K AHL salary with a $350K guarantee and will be an unrestricted free agent in July.