Wild Recall Ben Jones
The Minnesota Wild have recalled forward Ben Jones from the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He played one game with Iowa this weekend, after clearing waivers and getting sent down on Friday. That assignment ended Jones’ two-month stint on the NHL lineup, a move that Minnesota will now reverse.
Jones was awarded Iowa Wild’s captaincy but earned an NHL call-up after scoring two points in the first two games of the season. He has appeared in 20 NHL games since and posted no scoring, five shot blocks, and 47 hits. He’s thrown the fourth-most hits on the Wild on a per-game basis. That physical presence has been his biggest impact while operating from Minnesota’s fourth line. Jones didn’t manage any scoring in 28 NHL games prior to this season.
Jones will offer with behind Vinnie Hinostroza on Minnesota’s bottom line. Hinostroza has five points and 20 hits in 23 games this season. The balance between a checking forward in Jones and a utility wing in Hinostroza will fill out Minnesota’s depth with five games left on the schedule before 2025 ends. The Wild, now under the lead of superstar defender Quinn Hughes, have won their last six games by a combined score of 28-to-9. Minnesota is now 14-2-1 in their last 17 games.
Wild Activate Four Players, Place Two On IR
The Wild have been quite active when it comes to roster moves today. Michael Russo of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jacob Middleton along with forwards Mats Zuccarello and Vinnie Hinostroza have all been activated off injured reserve. In corresponding moves, defenseman Zach Bogosian and Daemon Hunt were both moved to IR.
Brodin has missed a little more than a week with a lower-body injury. The 32-year-old has been his usual reliable self defensively for Minnesota this season, sitting second on the team in blocked shots with 66 while being one of their most-used penalty killers. Through 30 outings, he has three goals and six assists and is logging over 22 minutes per game of ice time for the sixth straight year. With them facing Edmonton’s strong attack this afternoon, his return to their shutdown pairing will certainly be a welcome one.
As for Middleton, he has missed the last couple of weeks with an upper-body issue. After averaging nearly a career-high 22 minutes per game last season, his role has been more limited this year. Through 28 games, the 29-year-old has six assists along with 43 blocks and 42 hits while playing 18:08 per night, slotting in fifth among Minnesota’s defenders. He also takes a regular turn on their penalty kill and should give that unit a boost as well.
Zuccarello has also missed the last couple of weeks with an upper-body injury but that’s not the only time he has been on the shelf this season. As a result, the 38-year-old has been limited to just 15 games so far. However, Zuccarello has been productive in those outings, picking up two goals and ten assists in a little under 18 minutes per night of playing time. He should slot back into a top-six role and deepen Minnesota’s offensive depth.
Hinostroza, meanwhile, had missed the last month with a lower-body issue. Before being sidelined, he had been a regular in the bottom six for the Wild although offensive production was hard to come by as he has just two goals and three assists in 22 games thus far. While Hinostroza has spent a lot of this season on the wing, he is a natural center and with their depth down the middle taking a hit with last week’s trade that saw Marco Rossi go to Vancouver, having another veteran who can play down the middle when needed will help.
As for those landing on IR, Bogosian has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury. If the placement is backdated to December 14th (the day he was injured), he technically would be eligible to be activated as soon as Sunday. Having said that, they have an open roster spot after these moves so if Bogosian was that close to returning, they likely wouldn’t have placed him on IR in the first place. An 18-year NHL veteran, Bogosian has had a fairly limited role when he has been in the lineup this season, logging around 15 minutes per game of ice time while chipping in with two points in 17 outings.
Lastly, Hunt has played sparingly this season, suiting up in just a dozen games, suffering an undisclosed injury in the last of those on Tuesday. The 23-year-old is waiver-eligible and it’s clear that Minnesota doesn’t want to risk putting him on the wire so he has often served as their reserve defender. Hunt has two assists and 18 blocks in a dozen outings but is averaging just 12:26 per night. There is no word on how long he or Bogosian will be out.
Wild Reassign Ben Jones, Carson Lambos
Dec. 19: Minnesota announced it has reassigned Jones to AHL Iowa after clearing waivers, along with defenseman Carson Lambos. The 22-year-old Lambos made his NHL debut in Columbus last night after being recalled on Wednesday, recording a +1 rating and a shot on goal in 10:16 of ice time. After reassigning Nicolas Aubé-Kubel and David Spacek to Iowa earlier today, the Wild now has four open roster spots with only 11 forwards and six defensemen available for tomorrow’s game against the Oilers, ensuring multiple IR activations are coming between now and then.
Dec. 18: The Wild placed forward Ben Jones on waivers today, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. If he clears, he’s still expected to remain with the team, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports.
Jones clearing waivers now means they won’t need to expose him again if they decide to send him to the minors in the 30 days following his clearance. It also makes him eligible to be assigned to the AHL during the holiday roster freeze if they need a spot to activate a player from injured reserve.
The 26-year-old will make his 20th appearance of the season and 48th of his career tonight against the Blue Jackets. He’s gone the previous 47 without recording a point, setting a post-expansion era record for most career games without an appearance on the scoresheet. The only player in league history to log more appearances with zero career points is defenseman Gord Strate, who played 62 games for the Red Wings in the late 1950s.
A lack of surplus options in the minors, plus a continually rotating cast of injuries to Minnesota’s forward group, has kept him in the lineup. For what it’s worth, the former seventh-round pick of the Golden Knights hasn’t been given many opportunities to score. He’s started just 22.2% of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone, getting understandably shelled with a 35.0 CF% and getting outscored 6-1.
Jones brings two things to the table: faceoff acumen and physicality. The 6’0″ pivot leads the team with a 57.8% win rate on the dot this year (min. 100 draws) and ranks fourth with 2.47 hits per game.
Wild Reassign Nicolas Aube-Kubel, David Spacek
The Wild announced Friday that they’ve reassigned winger Nicolas Aubé-Kubel and defenseman David Spacek to AHL Iowa ahead of tomorrow’s roster freeze. They’re now left with two open roster spots, which could be used for at least one injured reserve activation before Saturday afternoon’s tilt with the Oilers.
Minnesota is coming off a 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets last night despite having an injury list with seven names on it, five of which are on IR. Most of those names are also carrying day-to-day designations and haven’t yet been ruled out for tomorrow’s game.
The two non-IR-bound players are winger Marcus Johansson and defenseman Zach Bogosian, both of whom sustained lower-body injuries against the Bruins on Dec. 14. They’re the likeliest to return to action, but Jonas Brodin and Vinnie Hinostroza are also listed as day-to-day and are eligible to come off IR as they’ve missed more than a week.
Aubé-Kubel had played in Minnesota’s last four games, his first appearances for the Wild, after sitting as a scratch once following his recall last week. The eight-year vet recorded an assist, a +1 rating, and four hits while averaging 12:08 per game, usually slotting in place of Hinostroza as the third line right wing alongside Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman. That line had good results in limited minutes, controlling 60% of expected goals and shot attempts.
Signed to a two-way deal over the summer, the 29-year-old has also made 23 appearances for Iowa. He’s third on the Baby Wild in goals (five), assists (eight), and second in points (13) with a -4 rating.
Spacek’s second recall of the season ends the way his first one did – without making an appearance. The 22-year-old righty is still looking to make his NHL debut after sitting in the press box Thursday in Columbus.
A fifth-round pick in 2022, Spacek is still looking for his first goal of the season with Iowa but is tied for the team lead with 11 assists. He’s coming off a 31-point breakout in 72 games last year and might still profile as a long-term depth option if he stays on his current trajectory.
Minnesota Wild Recall David Spacek
The Minnesota Wild announced today that David Spacek has been recalled their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. In a corresponding move, Daemon Hunt has been placed on IR.
The move comes just a day after the Wild recalled another young blueliner: 2021 first-round pick Carson Lambos. Minnesota is dealing with some injuries on its defense, namely to veterans Jonas Brodin, Jacob Middleton, and Zach Bogosian, as well as the aforementioned Hunt.
Adding Spacek alongside Lambos, who shoots left, gives Wild head coach John Hynes an additional right-shot defenseman to work with. The 22-year-old, who is the son of former NHLer Jaroslav Spacek, is a draft-and-develop success story for the Wild. He was selected in the fifth round, No. 153 overall, at the 2022 Entry Draft.
While he’s yet to make his NHL debut, this isn’t his first call-up. Spacek was recalled in early November, but was sent down five days later after serving as a healthy scratch for the team’s Nov. 11 game against the San Jose Sharks.
Now in his third campaign playing pro hockey, Spacek has emerged as a call-up option for the Wild. He’s climbed the team’s organizational depth chart in that period. The former QMJHL star had an up-and-down rookie professional campaign, scoring only 12 points and spending a little bit of time in the ECHL. But Spacek took a major step forward in 2024-25, scoring 31 points and establishing himself as a two-way, top-four AHL force.
Entering the season, both The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler and the team at Elite Prospects ranked Spacek as the No. 11 prospect in the Wild’s system, with Wheeler saying specifically that Spacek is “on a path to becoming a No. 5-7 D.” David St-Louis, lead scout at Elite Prospects, wrote at the time that “Spacek could give the Wild some good games as a call-up.”
Spacek has now earned another call-up to the Wild’s roster, so it’s possible that St-Louis’ prediction could come true in short order. Should Spacek get the chance to make his NHL debut, he’ll do so in relatively favorable circumstances. The Wild are on a roll, winning five consecutive games and going 7-2-1 in their last ten.
Minnesota lined up with a third pairing of Matt Kiersted and David Jiricek on Tuesday. Kiersted has played in just two NHL games this season and is a candidate to be replaced in the lineup by Lambos.
The Wild have a significantly higher level of organizational investment in Jiricek compared to Kiersted, which may help him stay in the lineup. Minnesota dealt a slate of draft picks, including a 2025 first-rounder, 2027 second-rounder, and 2026 third-rounder, to acquire Jiricek last November. But seeing as he hasn’t registered a point through 15 games and is averaging 12:28 time on ice per game, he could be the right-shot defenseman to exit the lineup in the event the club wants Spacek to make his NHL debut.
Wild Place Jonas Brodin On IR, Recall Carson Lambos
The surging Minnesota Wild continue to be hit by the injury bug. The Wild announced that they’ve placed veteran defensemen Jonas Brodin on the injured reserve and have recalled defenseman Carson Lambos in a corresponding roster move.
Minnesota didn’t share the specific injury that Brodin is dealing with, though he’s already missed the Wild’s last three contests. Technically speaking, assuming that the IR placement is retroactive to Brodin’s most recent appearance on December 11th, he’ll be eligible to return on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers. The belief is that he’s dealing with a lower-body issue, but he is only considered day-to-day.
Despite returning winger Marcus Foligno for last night’s win over the Washington Capitals, the Wild are dealing with multiple injuries across the active roster. Brodin joins Mats Zuccarello, Jacob Middleton, and Vinnie Hinostroza on Minnesota’s IR, while Marcus Johansson and Daemon Hunt are also on the shelf.
Regardless of the bruised and battered lineup, the Wild are enjoying one of their better stretches of the 2025-26 season. Winners of their last five in regulation, Minnesota is two wins away from matching its longest winning streak of the season. Dating back to November 1st, the Wild are 17-3-2 in their last 22 games.
Lambos, 22, will have the opportunity to make his NHL debut during his recall, though there’s no guarantee. Even without Brodin, Hunt, and Middleton, Minnesota has six other healthy defensemen on the roster. The former first-round pick is in his third professional campaign with the AHL’s Iowa Wild, scoring two goals and five points in 26 games to start the 2025-26 campaign.
Minnesota Wild Activate Marcus Foligno, Reassign Hunter Haight
Earlier today, the Minnesota Wild made their activation of veteran winger Marcus Foligno from injured reserve official, and reassigned Hunter Haight to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
Foligno, 34, hasn’t played since Nov. 26 due to a lower-body injury, an injury that ultimately cost him nine games. Foligno is a key defensive forward and off-ice leader for the Wild, someone who provides value to head coach John Hynes even when he’s not producing. That’s been the case this season, as Foligno has just two assists and no goals in 23 games played. He managed 14 goals and 29 points last season, but that offense has seemingly dried up this year.
Foligno is still the Wild’s No. 4 penalty-killing forward in terms of ice time this season, behind Matt Boldy, Nico Sturm, and Joel Eriksson Ek. His return will give the Wild’s penalty kill a much-needed boost, as despite the team’s incredible run of form, their penalty kill only ranks 22nd in the NHL in success rate. Getting Foligno back should help increase that number, even if it may come at the cost of some offensive production.
Now healthy and back in the lineup, the clear mandate for Foligno, beyond just maintaining his level of consistency as a defensive forward, will be finding ways to get back onto the scoresheet with a little bit more regularity. While he could certainly maintain his lineup spot as a leader and pure defensive specialist, the level of investment the Wild have in him changes the expectations surrounding his play.
He’s set to cost the club $4MM against the cap through 2027-28, and at that rate, the Wild are likely looking for a level of production more in line with last season’s numbers. The Wild are unlikely to expect Foligno to do much offensive heavy lifting, but he’s capable of being a more impactful secondary scorer than he’s been so far in 2025-26.
Foligno’s return cost Haight his spot on the NHL roster, but that’s not a massive surprise as Haight has been shuffled between Iowa and Minnesota quite a few times this season.
The 2022 second-round pick has scored five goals and six points in 16 AHL games this season and has dressed for two NHL games, though the most recent was on Oct. 11. Haight’s contract carries a two-way structure with an $800K NHL salary and $82.5K AHL salary. While he didn’t play any games on his most recent recall, his time on the NHL roster did have a notable financial benefit.
Wild Expected To Activate Marcus Foligno From IR
Marcus Foligno will be back in the Wild lineup tonight versus the Capitals, head coach John Hynes told reporters (including Jessi Pierce of NHL.com). They don’t have a roster spot available to remove him from injured reserve, so one of their many banged-up skaters will have to take his place on IR. That will likely be defenseman Jonas Brodin, who’s out tonight and has already missed two games with an undisclosed injury. Placing him on IR would only rule him out for tonight’s game; he’d be eligible to return Thursday against the Blue Jackets.
Foligno sustained a lower-body injury against the Blackhawks back on Nov. 26. He was listed as week-to-week and makes his return tonight with just one full practice under his belt, although that’s understandable given how many bodies Minnesota is missing from its forward group.
The 34-year-old leaves behind Vinnie Hinostroza and Mats Zuccarello on IR. On top of those two, Marcus Johansson sustained a lower-body injury in Sunday’s trouncing of the Bruins and is listed as day-to-day, Hynes said.
Foligno’s lower-body issue, plus an upper-body one that cost him one game earlier in the year, has limited him to 23 appearances this season. Long viewed as one of the better defensive wingers in the league, he always maintained enough point production to warrant consistent top-nine minutes.
That hasn’t been the case this year. He’s yet to score a goal and has just two assists.
He has 21 shots on goal and is bound to shed his poor shooting luck at some point, but his 0.91 shots on goal per game are still the lowest of his 15-year career. His average ice time of 13:07 per game is his lowest since the 2018-19 campaign, and he’s no longer featuring on Minnesota’s top penalty kill unit, losing that job to Matt Boldy.
Still, an experienced top-nine option is a boon to a Wild group that’s still rolling out names like Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Ben Jones, and Tyler Pitlick in its bottom six, regardless of his offensive struggles this season. Those three have combined for only two points in 41 games.
Also missing from the Wild lineup tonight will be veteran rearguard Zach Bogosian, Hynes said. Like Johansson, he’s day-to-day with a lower-body injury he sustained against Boston.
Dylan Gambrell Signs With AHL Iowa
Back in September, veteran center Dylan Gambrell signed a PTO agreement with Nashville with the hopes of securing a full-season contract. No such deal came to fruition and he had been on the open market since then after not securing a contract with AHL Milwaukee either. However, he has now caught on with a team as AHL Iowa announced that they’ve signed Gambrell for the remainder of the season.
The 29-year-old was effectively an NHL regular until somewhat recently. Gambrell played in at least 49 games per season between the 2019-20 and the 2022-23 campaigns, with a career-high of 63 coming back in 2021-22. He spent most of those games primarily on the fourth line, tallying 17 goals and 23 assists along with a 46.1% faceoff rate in 233 NHL contests between San Jose and Ottawa.
However, aside from preseason appearances (of which he only had two this past preseason), Gambrell has played exclusively in the minors. Last season, he played on a two-way deal with Columbus, suiting up with their farm team in Cleveland where he had 13 goals and 12 assists in 54 appearances.
One of the challenges that Gambrell likely faced in free agency is that he qualifies for veteran status at the AHL level. Teams can only dress five skaters with 320 games of professional experience which has resulted in some capable veterans either remaining unsigned or having to go overseas for this season with so many teams at their veteran limit. Gambrell decided to wait it out for an opportunity in North America and while it took some time, he has now found one.
Hughes Keeping "Open Mind" On Staying With Minnesota
According to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Hughes is keeping an “open mind” when it comes to re-upping with Minnesota on July 1st, 2026. Russo noted that Hughes believes the Wild have “an amazing core.” He also shared that Hughes is happy with how close the team is to Michigan, and for being the organization that actually stepped up to get him, regardless of his perceived hesitancy to sign an extension.
Now, unlike other teams, the Wild have more than six months to convince Hughes to sign immediately when eligible, and even longer if both sides are comfortable with him entering the 2026-27 season as a pending unrestricted free agent. They got off to a good start last night, beating the Boston Bruins by four goals, with Hughes scoring his first goal with the team in the third period.
- Back in Minnesota, there were a few negatives that came from last night’s contest. Both defenseman David Jiříček and forward Marcus Johansson left yesterday’s game with lower-body injuries. According to Joe Smith of The Athletic, the Wild didn’t offer any updates for either player during the post-game media availability. Minnesota doesn’t play again until tomorrow, so more information should be provided before then.