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Ryan Hartman Activated Off IR, Sammy Walker Sent To AHL

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The Wild will get a key part of their attack back in their lineup tomorrow against Ottawa as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated forward Ryan Hartman off injured reserve.  In a corresponding move, Sammy Walker has been sent back to AHL Iowa.

Hartman has missed the last seven weeks with a shoulder injury sustained in a fight in late October.  The 28-year-old had a career year last season with 34 goals and 31 assists (for context, his previous career high in points was 31) and had a goal and four assists in nine contests before the injury.  He’ll be a big boost to a Minnesota lineup that finds itself in the middle of the pack offensively but he won’t jump back onto the top line as instead, he’ll skate on the second trio with Frederick Gaudreau and Matt Boldy when they take on Ottawa on Sunday.

As for Walker, he received his first recall last Saturday and got into four games with Minnesota, getting held off the scoresheet while averaging a little over nine minutes per night.  He was off to a strong start in Iowa before the recall as Walker had 11 goals and 11 assists in 21 games to start his first professional campaign.

Minnesota has ample roster space that they could have afforded to activate Hartman and keep Walker up with the big club.  However, they’ve instead opted to continue to carry a roster that’s close to the minimum, allowing them to bank as much cap space as possible.  That cap space will be a weapon by the trade deadline with so many teams currently using LTIR which should give GM Bill Guerin a boost as he looks to add to their roster in the second half of the season.

Minnesota Wild Re-Assign Nic Petan

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After a few more scoreless appearances, Nic Petan’s latest stint in the NHL has come to an end. The Minnesota Wild have assigned the depth forward to the AHL, clearing some room for Ryan Hartman and Brandon Duhaime, who are both getting closer to a return from injury.

Petan, 27, was unable to score a goal in his eight games with the Wild, meaning his streak continues. His last goal in the NHL came in the 2018-19 season, despite another 53 games since then. There is serious skill in the 5’9″ forward, but his game has never translated to the highest level, at least not on a consistent basis. He’ll return to the minor leagues where he has been outstanding, scoring 187 points in 189 career AHL games.

Since he only came up on November 19, Petan is still exempt from waivers and can be assigned without issue.

Hartman and Duhaime have not yet re-joined practice but both are expected to at some point this week. The pair will give Minnesota a nice boost while they continue to climb up the Central Division standings. After an inconsistent start, the team is now 7-3 in their last ten and just five points behind the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets.

Minnesota Wild Re-Assign Andrej Sustr

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On December 1st, the Minnesota Wild recalled veteran defenseman Andrej Sustr to their NHL roster. Today, the Wild announced that they’ve re-assigned Sustr to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, meaning he’ll head back to the minors without skating in an NHL game.

Sustr, 32, is as mentioned a veteran defenseman who has significant NHL experience on his resume. He broke into the league as an undrafted college free agent on the Tampa Bay Lightning and played a regular role on their 2014-15 team that made a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Sustr would continue in his regular role in Tampa until 2017-18, when he got into just 44 games, leading to him leaving the organization altogether in the offseason. Sustr signed with the Anaheim Ducks, spending most of 2018-19 in the AHL.

That run in the AHL motivated him to look elsewhere to continue his career, leading him to sign with the KHL’s Chinese franchise, the Kunlun Red Star.

After two years in China, Sustr returned to the Lightning organization and split time between Tampa and their AHL affiliate in Syracuse before being claimed off of waivers by, you guessed it, the Ducks.

This offseason, Sustr signed with the Wild and has spent most of the year in the AHL, save for this call-up. Having not played in a single NHL game for the Wild despite spending over a week on their roster, Sustr will head back to Iowa to resume playing an important role on their blueline.

Ryan Hartman, Brandon Duhaime To Return To Practice Next Week

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  • The Minnesota Wild have been without forwards Ryan Hartman and Brandon Duhaime as they each work back from upper-body injuries. Per The Athletic’s Michael Russo, both skaters are expected to return to practice with the Wild next week, when the team returns from its road trip. (subscription link) Hartman’s return is important for the Wild, whose thin crop of centers has forced them into using Sam Steel as their first-line center. Hartman, who scored 34 goals and 65 points last season, should be a better fit for that role, while Duhaime’s return should add some snarl to the team’s bottom-six.

Minnesota Wild Recall Sammy Walker

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The Minnesota Wild have announced that forward Sammy Walker has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. In a corresponding move, forward Joseph Cramarossa has been sent down.

Walker, 23, has been in the midst of an extremely impressive professional debut this season. After a four-year collegiate career at the University of Minnesota, Walker signed an entry-level contract with the Wild in August.

A 2017 seventh-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Walker leads AHL Iowa in scoring with 22 points in 21 games, seven points clear of the next-highest scorer, defenseman Joe Hicketts. Walker’s recall puts him in a position to make his NHL debut after just over 20 games of professional action.

It’s a recall that indicates that coach Dean Evason wants to inject some more offensive flair into his team than what Cramarossa is able to provide.

The 30-year-old veteran depth player has scored a goal in four games so far this season but has just 13 points in 68 career NHL games. He’ll head back to Iowa where he has seven points in 15 games.

As the Wild look to increase their separation in the standings from the Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, and St. Louis Blues, they’ll hope that Walker can add to an offense that has been on fire in recent games.

Injury Notes: Canadiens, Blues, Brodin

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The Montreal Canadiens will be without defenseman David Savard and forward Sean Monahan when they take on the Seattle Kraken tonight. Per the team, Savard is dealing with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. At the same time, Monahan has a lower-body injury and will be reevaluated when the team returns to Montreal after their road trip concludes tonight.

Savard is second among Canadiens defensemen this season in points (eight) and average time on ice (22:17). While his defensive play hasn’t been what it was during the end of his time in Columbus, he’s a vital minute-muncher on a youthful Montreal defense. His usage is the highest it’s been in more than five years, so it’ll be testing for the Habs rookies to see if they can handle some increased minutes in his absence. Monahan is also in the middle of a well-documented resurgence, sitting in fourth place on the Habs with 17 points in 25 games this year. He’s also been great in the faceoff circle, winning over 55% of his draws and leading the team in total faceoff wins (177).

  • While the St. Louis Blues are on their way to a convincing road win on Long Island, they did it without a pair of key players in winger Pavel Buchnevich and defenseman Torey Krug. Buchenvich was out with a lower-body injury, while Krug missed the game with an upper-body injury. Head coach Craig Berube noted pre-game that both players need further evaluations before “knowing whether the injuries would be more short-term or long-term.”
  • Minnesota Wild head coach Dean Evason said today that although defenseman Jonas Brodin won’t make his return to the lineup tomorrow, the Swede looked “great” today and is close to returning. Brodin, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, has missed a combined five games this year with this injury and an earlier illness. While known for his defensive prowess, he’s still in the middle of a down year offensively, with just four assists in 19 games.

 

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Minnesota Wild

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With American Thanksgiving now behind us and the holiday season coming up, PHR continues its look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Minnesota Wild.

Who are the Wild thankful for?

Kirill Kaprizov.

It’s simple, really. There is no player in Minnesota Wild history that has been as dynamic or that generates as much excitement as the 25-year-old Russian superstar. Incredibly, he already ranks 17th on the team’s all-time scoring list and will pass Brian Rolston, Jason Pominville, and Nino Niederreiter this season (provided he stays healthy).

He’ll also likely catch current players Mathew Dumba and Jonas Brodin, and has a chance of leapfrogging Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, and Jason Zucker which would get him into the top 10. That is after just three seasons with the team, one of which was shortened to just 56 games.

With 32 points in 24 games this season he is eight ahead of his next closest teammate, and is more than living up to the $9MM price tag he received after his rookie season. Signed through 2025-26, he actually will look like quite a bargain as the cap ceiling continues to rise over the next few years.

What are the Wild thankful for?

Increasing hockey-related revenue numbers.

Speaking of a rising salary cap, the chance that it will go up ahead of schedule is music to the ears of general manager Bill Guerin. The Wild are dealing with more than $12.7MM in dead cap this season thanks to buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, and that number is only going to go up for the next two years.

A $14,743,588 penalty will be applied to the team in 2023-24 and 2024-25 before it drops off to just $833,333 for four years after. If estimates are correct, and the players are going to pay off their escrow debt ahead of schedule, the bullet that Guerin bit will seem a little more forgiving.

Good timing, given the situation the team will face after this season. Matt Boldy, Sam Steel, Brandon Duhaime, Calen Addison, Mason Shaw, and Filip Gustavsson are all scheduled for restricted free agency, while Dumba and Frederik Gaudreau are headed for the open market. A rising cap – even if it only goes up enough to cover the buyout increase – will go a long way to help the front office make the puzzle pieces fit.

What would the Wild be even more thankful for?

A strong second half from Marc-Andre Fleury.

Even with that huge cap penalty, the Wild are a good team. They have an elite offensive talent, some excellent defenders, and enough depth to make it difficult for most teams to match up. But too often this season they have been receiving below-average goaltending.

Fleury turned 38 a few days ago and no one is expecting that he will post another Vezina-winning season this year. But the team needs him to be more than he has been so far. Through 16 games, the veteran netminder has an .895 save percentage, easily the worst of his career. There have been times in the past when people have written him off, only for his game to turn around significantly.

They don’t need him to be elite, and they don’t need him to start every game (Gustavsson has shown ability, too). But if he can give the team even average goaltending, they will be a playoff team this season and potentially even contend for the Central crown, given how undecided the division is at this point.

Minnesota has Jesper Wallstedt coming, and don’t need five more years of peak Fleury. But they do need him this year if they’re going to make any noise.

What should be on the Wild’s holiday wishlist?

A top-six center.

This has been on the team’s wishlist for a while, but Minnesota still needs an impact center. With Ryan Hartman on injured reserve, the group has been using Sam Steel as the first-line center. While he has shown some promise, they need a more established option there, and not just for this season.

Sure, Marco Rossi might eventually become that player, or Hartman could jump back in and find some of the magic he had last year, but acquiring someone from outside the organization is still probably a top priority. In a recent column, Joe Smith of The Athletic pondered about Bo Horvat, and noted he might be too expensive to acquire as a rental.

There is also the option of adding a top-six winger, which would move some players into more comfortable spots lower in the lineup. That may be a more realistic option, especially if they still believe that Hartman can be a difference-maker in the middle of Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello when he returns.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Could This Be The Year That Minnesota Trades Matt Dumba?

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  • Matt Dumba’s future with the Wild has seemingly been in question for years now as trade speculation has been plentiful but he has always stuck around. However, Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic feel (subscription link) that it will be different this time around and that Minnesota is likely to move the 28-year-old by the trade deadline in March.  Dumba has struggled this season and has just seven points in 24 games and with prospect Brock Faber not far away from being NHL-ready (he’s expected to turn pro after his college season ends), it’s possible that they’d eye him for Dumba’s spot, allowing them to reallocate his $6MM elsewhere.  Even with him struggling, Dumba would be an interesting addition to the trade block over the next few months.

Minnesota Wild Recall Joseph Cramarossa

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The Minnesota Wild have announced that forward Joseph Cramarossa has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

The move fills a lone vacant spot on the team’s roster, giving them some additional reinforcements as they prepare for a four-game road trip that begins Sunday in Dallas.

Cramarossa, 30, has played in four games for the Wild so far this year and spent most of the season in Iowa. The winger bounced around a bit after a 2017 waiver claim but seems to have found a home in the Wild organization. This will be Cramarossa’s third straight season as a depth forward in Minnesota/Iowa, and he’s clearly valued for that role by Wild brass.

In 15 AHL games so far this year Cramarossa has seven points to go along with 47 penalty minutes. Overall, he has 68 NHL games on his resume and 13 points. While it’s unlikely that Cramarossa sees any major minutes for the Wild, his recall underscores the team’s desire to play with more physicality and grit.

The Wild added some major muscle when they acquired Ryan Reaves from the New York Rangers, and Cramarossa’s recall helps the Wild in the same areas Reaves was acquired to address.

Hunter Haight Traded In The OHL

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  • Wild prospect Hunter Haight is on the move in the OHL as Barrie announced that they traded him to Saginaw in exchange for five draft picks. The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by Minnesota this past summer after putting up 22 goals and 41 points last season with the Colts.  However, things haven’t gone as well this year as he managed just three goals and six helpers in 20 contests prior to the move.  Minnesota has until June 1, 2024 to sign the center to an NHL contract.

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