Canucks Place Marco Rossi On IR, Recall Arshdeep Bains
The Canucks announced they’ve placed center Marco Rossi on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 30. His roster spot is going to winger Arshdeep Bains, who’s been recalled from AHL Abbotsford.
Rossi, 24, has only played eight games since being acquired from the Wild in the Quinn Hughes deal. The team’s new second-line center behind Elias Pettersson hasn’t seen much success yet, though. While he’s averaged nearly 19 minutes per game, tracking for a career-high, the 2020 No. 9 overall pick has only managed two points and a -5 rating while seeing a rotation of Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, and Conor Garland as his primary linemates.
That cold streak hit a stop sign against the Flyers on Tuesday, leaving that game with a lower-body injury. On Thursday, head coach Adam Foote told reporters that Rossi – along with Garland – would miss at least a week. He would be eligible to come off IR on Jan. 6 against the Sabres, but won’t return until their following game against the Red Wings at the earliest.
Injuries have been a theme for the Austrian this season. His tenure with the Wild ended while he was on injured reserve with a separate lower-body issue, believed to be a foot fracture. All told, he’s had five goals and 15 points in 25 showings this season after reaching a career-high 60 points last year.
If history is any indication, Bains won’t be a replacement for Rossi in the top six, but he does give Vancouver an extra forward while Garland is out. The 24-year-old broke camp with the Canucks but was waived and reassigned to Abbotsford last month after scoring a goal and five points in 26 appearances, almost exclusively in a fourth-line role while averaging under 10 minutes per game. The 6’0″ winger has three goals and six points in five AHL games since the demotion, bringing his career AHL points per game up to 0.79.
Conor Garland And Marco Rossi Out At Least A Week
The new calendar year hasn’t started off on a good note on the injury front for Vancouver. Sportsnet 650’s Randip Janda relays (Twitter links) that winger Conor Garland and center Marco Rossi will be out at least a week with respective lower-body injuries.
Garland sustained his injury on Tuesday against Philadelphia when he received a slew foot. The veteran has had an okay first half to his season, notching 22 points in 33 games but just seven have been goals. Given that Vancouver is likely to be a seller before the trade deadline in March, the 29-year-old has popped up in trade speculation again, even with a new six-year, $36MM extension set to begin next season.
As for Rossi, he was one of the pieces that came to the Canucks in last month’s Quinn Hughes trade. Injured at the time he was acquired, he has since returned and got off to a quiet start with his new team. In eight games since the swap, the 24-year-old has been held to just one goal and one assist but he was more productive in Minnesota, notching four goals and nine assists in 17 outings. The hope is that he’ll be a top-six piece for the long term but that’s on hold for now with this latest injury.
Since they each will miss at least a week, both Garland and Rossi will be eligible to go on injured reserve and open up some roster flexibility. Janda adds that the team does intend to recall at least one forward from AHL Abbotsford which would bring them back to 13 healthy options on their active roster.
Vancouver Canucks Activate Marco Rossi
The Vancouver Canucks announced this morning that center Marco Rossi has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the club placed center Elias Pettersson on IR, retroactive to Dec. 5.
Rossi has not played since Nov. 11, when his former team, the Minnesota Wild, took on the San Jose Sharks. The Austrian center, who turned 24 in September, was a major piece of the return package the Canucks received as part of Friday’s stunning Quinn Hughes trade.
He had scored 13 points in 17 games before suffering a lower-body injury against the Sharks. Rossi participated in Canucks practice yesterday in Newark, and now appears poised to dress for the team’s matinee contest today against the New Jersey Devils.
It seems Rossi will begin his time as a Canuck playing a major role in head coach Adam Foote’s lineup. The Athletic’s Thomas Drance indicated yesterday that Rossi will begin his tenure as the Canucks’ first-line center, skating in between veteran wingers Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. That’s not a role he is entirely unfamiliar with, as he was tested in a similar role at times during his tenure with the Wild.
For much of their existence as a franchise, the Wild have struggled to source top-six offensive centers, pivots capable of scoring at a high rate. While that specific type of player is notoriously difficult for NHL teams to acquire, Rossi has joined a team with one such player already on the roster.
Pettersson, who scored 102 points in 2022-23, has been the key center in Vancouver since winning the Calder trophy in 2018-19. Pettersson has been out since Dec. 5 with an upper-body injury, and has missed three games so far.
When everyone is healthy and playing at their best, the addition of Rossi gives the Canucks an enviable level of depth down the middle. With Pettersson as the first-line center, Rossi anchoring the second line, and Filip Chytil running the third line, the Canucks have a trio of first-round picks at center to form the backbone of its forward corps.
But unfortunately for the Canucks, injuries and inconsistency have clouded that picture considerably. Pettersson hasn’t looked like the Pettersson that scored 102 points and emerged as one of the game’s dominant young centers for more than a year now. Chytil, despite his evident talent, has struggled with persistent injury issues and is once again sidelined with an upper-body injury.
That leaves Rossi, at the moment, the only pivot of that trio healthy and set to play for the Canucks. As the club continues to push forward in its rebuilding process, the health and performance of its three key young centers (as well as the continued growth of 23-year-old Aatu Raty) will be a key story line to track in Vancouver.
Elias Pettersson Out, Marco Rossi Could Make Canucks Debut
The whirlwind around the Vancouver Canucks will continue into Sunday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Vancouver will be without their star forward Elias Pettersson, but could return Marco Rossi back from injury, per Thomas Drance of The Athletic. Rossi has missed over a month of action with a lower-body injury. He has been considered as day-to-day over the last week and could now get the chance to make his Canucks debut in the first possible opportunity.
Rossi should be a major addition to a Vancouver side that’s struggled to fill their top-center role all season long. He scored 13 points in 17 games with the Wild to start the season, and is coming off a career year with 24 goals and 60 points last season. He was a fringe top-line center to start the year, rotating with Joel Eriksson Ek for minutes. That’s a standing he earned in the latter half of last season, when injuries to Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman pushed Rossi into a premier role. He hung onto it, despite a playoff series with minimal usage, and now has a chance to grow into a much larger role for Vancouver. The 24 year old scored 49 goals and 114 points in 202 games, and five seasons, in Minnesota.
Even with that production, Rossi could face an immediate challenge stepping in for Pettersson, who hasn’t played in over a week due to an upper-body injury. Pettersson has continued to serve as Vancouver’s top forward. He led the offense in average ice time (20:37) prior to injury and continues to lead the forwards in points (22). Vancouver has struggled in his absence, with only six goals in their last three games – tied for third-worst in the league over the last week.
With a return from injury and recent move weighing him down, Rossi likely won’t be the one to relight Vancouver’s offense out of the gates. His return will be a great indication of what Vancouver will have to offer on the heels of a historic trade. They acquired three young and promising pros and could slot two of them – Rossi and defenseman Zeev Buium – into top-line roles right away. How they’re able to perform under the pressure of a losing season could go far in forecasting Vancouver’s next era, now shaped around three former Minnesota Wild, Pettersson, and inevitably high draft capital.
Poll: Which Team Won The Quinn Hughes Trade?
Last night, the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks got together on the biggest trade of the season and of recent memory. Rivaled only by the three-way trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas to the Colorado Avalanche, the Canucks moved former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Quinn Hughes to the ‘State of Hockey’.
It’s easy to assess what the Wild gained in this trade. They’ve landed arguably one of the top three defensemen in the NHL, rivaled only by Avalanche Cale Makar and Blue Jacket Zach Werenski.
Outside of some mild injury concerns, Hughes has been dominant on a largely non-competitive team. Despite putting up some solid production through his first three seasons, he’s been dominant for the last five, scoring 50 goals and 335 points in 330 games while averaging 25:59 of ice time per night.
Unfortunately, and likely one of the motivating factors for moving on in Hughes’ eyes — the Canucks have only qualified for the playoffs twice throughout his career, with things again looking bleak this season. Although they aren’t considered in the same echelon as the Avalanche or Dallas Stars, potentially not even after this trade, the Wild have only missed the playoffs twice throughout Hughes’ career.
Still, as mentioned, Minnesota is lining up to play one of Colorado or Dallas in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs if they don’t fall to a wild-card spot, which may be more advantageous to them. Even though they’ve made the postseason more often than not over the last decade, the Wild haven’t reached the second round since the 2015 postseason. Time will tell if adding a player of Hughes’ caliber will be the answer to getting them over the hump.
For Vancouver, the Canucks effectively added four first-round picks for their franchise player. Marco Rossi, 24, is the oldest of the group, having been selected with the 9th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Liam Ohgren, 21, and Zeev Buium, 20, were drafted in the first round of the 2022 and 2024 NHL Drafts, respectively.
Rossi will immediately become the Canucks second-line center and will likely push Filip Chytil to a third-line role once he returns from injury. Over the last two years, Rossi has scored 28 goals and 73 points in 99 games while averaging a 47.1% success rate in the dot.
Still, Rossi isn’t far removed from a more-than-disappointing playoff performance last season. Scoring two goals and three points in six games, the Wild infamously demoted Rossi to the team’s fourth line as early as Game 2 in the team’s matchup last spring against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Meanwhile, Buium, the former National Champion with the University of Denver Pioneers, is enjoying a solid rookie campaign. Before the trade to Vancouver, Buium had scored three goals and 14 points in 31 games, averaging 18:28 of ice time per night. Despite starting 51.5% of his shifts in the offensive zone, he had averaged a 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength. He doesn’t project to have a similar offensive ceiling as Hughes, though he may end up being somewhat better defensively.
Lastly, Ohgren has yet to break out in any meaningful way with the Wild and may benefit from more ice time in Vancouver. Largely limited to a bottom-six role, the Swede has tallied two goals and five points in 42 games over the past two years, averaging 10:26 of ice time. However, if his AHL performance is any indication of things to come, the young center has tallied 22 goals and 42 points in his last 50 games with the struggling Iowa Wild.
Many of the grades of this trade will hinge on a few things. If Hughes signs a long-term extension with Minnesota this summer, or helps the team win its first Stanley Cup in franchise history, it will make the return haul a far easier pill to swallow. For Vancouver, if Hughes was unwilling to resign and doesn’t with Minnesota either, the trade will make a ton of sense in the long term, especially if each player reaches their respective ceiling.
Now it’s time for you to vote — who do you think came out on top?
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Wild Acquire Quinn Hughes
The Quinn Hughes trade rumor mill has come to an end. The Wild have acquired the blueliner from the Canucks in exchange for center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick. Both teams have announced the swap.
Dating back to the offseason, there had been speculation that a trade involving Hughes could happen at some point. The blueliner had talked about liking the idea of one day playing with his brothers, something Canucks president Jim Rutherford also referenced. To that end, the Devils were believed to have had discussions about the idea of making a move for him with those discussions resurfacing this week amid talks with several other suitors.
Minnesota was not among those known suitors but they have won the sweepstakes for Hughes, making a significant addition to their back end. The 26-year-old has been one of the top-scoring defensemen in the NHL in recent years and is only two seasons removed from winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top blueliner while finishing third in voting for the award last season.
This season, Hughes has played in 26 games with Vancouver, picking up two goals and 21 assists while logging a career-high 27:26 of ice time per night. For his career, he checks in at just below the point-per-game mark with 61 goals and 371 helpers in 459 regular season games. He has produced at a similar rate in the postseason, notching two goals and 24 assists in 30 playoff contests from the Canucks’ playoff appearances in 2020 and 2024.
It’s an understatement to say that adding Hughes will be a significant addition to Minnesota’s back end. The team has leaned heavily on Brock Faber in the early going this season with veterans Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon also logging over 20 minutes a night. That’s a solid foundation but a group that was lacking a legitimate number one defender. That’s now no longer the case with Hughes sliding in as that missing piece with Jacob Middleton (when healthy) also serving as a top-four-caliber piece.
Hughes has two seasons remaining on his contract with a team-friendly $7.85MM AAV. It’s plausible that he could double that when his contract expires and have a chance to be the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. Interestingly enough, he’s going to a team that employs the highest-paid player in NHL history as of next season in winger Kirill Kaprizov.
Clearly, GM Bill Guerin, who is also the GM for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, feels he will be able to make a strong pitch for Hughes to stick around for the long haul, even if it requires another record-setting contract to do so. Hughes will be eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1st although Minnesota has received no assurances that he’ll do so, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo (Twitter link). Notably, with new CBA restrictions on term and bonus structure kicking in next September, Minnesota will have about a 10-week window to try to lock Hughes up to an eight-year extension before the maximum length of a deal drops to seven seasons.
The Wild currently sit in third place in a hotly contested Central Division. They’re behind Colorado and Dallas, the top two teams in the NHL by a considerable margin while Winnipeg, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, is also in their division as well, though languishing as of late. With this move, an already difficult division gets a lot more difficult but the opportunity to add an elite defender to his group is an opportunity that Guerin clearly couldn’t pass up.
As for Vancouver, this is a situation they clearly didn’t want to be in on multiple fronts. For starters, the recent trade speculation was hardly ideal and it was recently acknowledged that it was a discussion point in the dressing room. Meanwhile, their preference certainly would have been to try to lock him up long-term but TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that they’ve known for a while that he wouldn’t do so. However, considering that the Canucks sit dead last in the NHL standings with just 25 points in 31 games and are coming off missing the playoffs last season, a retool of some sorts was going to be on the horizon. Taking a step back would have lowered the chances of Hughes re-signing while moving him allowed for the potential to kick-start that roster restructuring.
There’s a strong case to make that Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have accomplished that with this trade. For starters, they bring in a highly-touted young defender in Buium who they hope can be an impact piece right away, particularly on the offensive front.
The 20-year-old was the 12th overall pick by Minnesota not even a year and a half ago. He signed his entry-level contract at the end of his college season back in April and made his NHL debut in the playoffs, picking up an assist in four games. Buium has been a regular on the back end for the Wild this year, playing in 31 games where he has put up three goals and 11 assists in 18:28 of playing time per game. He should have a chance to play a little higher on the depth chart with the Canucks with a regular spot in the top four behind Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and Tyler Myers being a legitimate possibility. With a longer-term lens, he could be a potential long-term partner with fellow rookie Tom Willander.
Buium is signed on his entry-level contract through the 2026-27 campaign with a cap hit of $967K plus an additional $1MM in potential ‘A’ bonuses in each year. If he progresses as expected, his second contract could wind up eclipsing what Hughes is making now while giving them a foundational blueliner, albeit not a franchise one like Hughes is. Buium is under team control through the 2032-33 season.
As for Rossi, he helps fill a need that the Canucks have had for quite some time as a legitimate second-line center to play behind Elias Pettersson. J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat were on the roster is past years but both were ultimately moved out and with due respect to Filip Chytil who can be a quality player when healthy, Vancouver lost a lot of impact depth down the middle with those swaps. Rossi isn’t at the level of Miller or Horvat but he will be a substantial upgrade on their current depth options, a group headlined by recent UFA signing David Kampf.
The 24-year-old was the ninth pick back in the 2020 draft class. Rossi battled myocarditis not long after being selected which stalled his development although he bounced back without any long-term concerns. He had a solid showing in 2023-24 with 40 points in 82 games and then was considerably more productive last season, tallying 24 goals and 36 assists in 82 regular season games while playing over 18 minutes per night. However, his ice time dropped in the playoffs to just 11 minutes per game and he remained a subject of consistent trade speculation throughout the summer with the two sides well apart on contract talks for a considerable amount of time.
Eventually, the parties worked out a three-year, $15MM bridge deal in late August. He will remain under team control at its expiration for one more year but will be owed a $6MM qualifying offer with salary arbitration rights. Meanwhile, Rossi has produced at a similar level this season, picking up four goals and nine assists in 17 games. However, he has missed the last four weeks with a lower-body injury although he took part in Minnesota’s morning skate on Thursday which suggests he’s getting closer to returning. With Pettersson out of the lineup himself, it’s possible that Rossi could jump right into a top-line role depending on when he returns. He and Braeden Cootes – a 2025 first-round pick – now give Vancouver some much-needed longer-term stability behind Pettersson down the middle.
As for Ohgren, he’s an intriguing addition to this swap. The 21-year-old was a first-round pick by the Wild in 2022, going 19th overall. However, his development hasn’t gone quite as planned to this point.
Ohgren had his first full season in North America in 2024-25 and was quite productive with AHL Iowa, amassing 19 goals and 18 assists in 41 games, more than solid production for a rookie. But while that yielded some opportunities with Minnesota, he wasn’t able to produce very much, being limited to just two goals and three assists in 24 games. This season, he’s still looking for his first point after being held off the scoresheet in his first 18 outings while logging just 9:32 per night. Ohgren briefly saw some action with Iowa as well, notching two goals and three helpers in nine games.
That made Ohgren a legitimate change-of-scenery candidate. He should have an opportunity to play a little higher up the depth chart at some point with Vancouver and if he can turn into a productive secondary scorer, he’s someone who can be a useful piece for them for a while. In the second season of his entry-level deal, Ohgren has a cap hit of $887K along with $500K in ‘A’ bonuses per year. He’s under club control through the 2030-31 campaign.
Between these players and a first-round pick, Vancouver has added what they hope will be several core players to help them down the road. If all goes well, it will result in them taking a step back to take a couple of steps forward down the road.
From a salary cap perspective, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic mentions (Twitter link) that there is no salary cap retention on any players in the swap. PuckPedia notes that the Wild are adding a net cap charge of just under $997K over a full season. Using their numbers, that means that Minnesota is now projected to finish the year around $2.1MM below the cap ceiling, meaning that Guerin still has some financial flexibility to try to add to his roster later in the year. Meanwhile, Vancouver is still operating in LTIR although they should be able to dip below that threshold before too long, allowing them to bank some cap space to put toward some of the bonuses for their entry-level players.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Hughes was being traded to the Wild. Dreger was the first with the full trade return.
Photos courtesy of Sergei Belski and Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.
West Notes: Danault, Pettersson, Rossi
Yesterday evening, Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli reported that “trade chatter is picking up” around Los Angeles Kings pivot Phillip Danault. According to Seravalli, “multiple teams have inquired with LA on his availability,” and Danault could be one of the top centers available on the trade market, assuming the Kings have an appetite to deal him.
Danault, 32, has been one of the league’s more well-regarded defensive centers over the last half-decade or more. He finished seventh in Selke Trophy voting in 2018-19, beginning a streak of five consecutive years where he received votes as the league’s top defensive forward. While he has generally been a consistent offensive presence as a King, good for about 40 to 50 points of production, points have eluded him in 2025-26. Danault has just five points through 28 games this season, and has yet to register a goal.
At 32 years old, it’d be fair to be concerned that Danault’s offensive decline early in the season could be less a cold streak and more a signal of actual age-related decline. Complicating things further is the fact that Danault is under contract for another year at a $5.5MM cap hit, and owns a 10-team no-trade list per the terms of his contract. But if teams view Danault’s decline in production as more of a poor stretch than a sign of more permanent decline, then it’d be understandable that Danault would receive robust interest on the trade market.
Other notes from the Pacific Division:
- Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote told the media last night, including The Athletic’s Thomas Drance, that center Elias Pettersson is dealing with an injury and is still being evaluated. Foote added that Pettersson will undergo further testing on Sunday, including an MRI. If the Canucks lose Pettersson for any period of time, their chances of winning games would be dealt a significant blow. For as much criticism as Pettersson has received over the last year, he’s upped his production to start 2025-26. He’s scored 22 points in 28 games this season, and while that’s not at the standard he set when he was a 102-point player in 2022-23, it is an improvement in scoring pace over last season.
- On Thursday, we covered news coming out of Minnesota that Wild center Marco Rossi‘s injury recovery was progressing at a slower rate than was initially expected. Today, The Athletic’s Joe Smith relayed word from Wild head coach John Hynes, who said that he still considers Rossi at this point to be out on a week-to-week basis. Rossi has been out since Nov. 11 and has 13 points in 17 games played in 2025-26.
Injury Updates: Canucks, Drouin, Wild
The Canucks could soon be getting some much-needed help on the injury front. Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor notes (Twitter link) that winger Nils Hoglander and goaltender Thatcher Demko could both return next Thursday against Buffalo. Hoglander has yet to play this season while recovering from ankle surgery but has picked up 61 points over the last two years combined. With Vancouver in the bottom third of the league in goals scored, adding some extra secondary scoring would certainly help. Meanwhile, Demko has missed the better part of a month due to a lower-body injury of his own. Prior to the injury, he was off to an okay start to his season with a 2.80 GAA and a .903 SV% in 10 starts.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Prior to tonight’s game against Colorado, the Islanders announced (Twitter link) that winger Jonathan Drouin is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The 30-year-old is in his first season in New York after coming over from the Avs in free agency and while he hasn’t been scoring much (he has just three goals), he has picked up a dozen assists through his first 26 games; his 15 points are good for sixth in team scoring.
- Wild head coach John Hynes provided a pair of injury updates to reporters, including Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link). Center Danila Yurov’s return from an undisclosed injury is now imminent although he missed his second straight game tonight. The 21-year-old rookie has seven points in 21 games in his first NHL campaign.
- However, the news isn’t as good for fellow pivot Marco Rossi. Hynes shared that he won’t join the team on its four-game road trip. While he’s skating on his own, his recovery from a lower-body injury will now take longer than initially thought. Minnesota’s road trip ends on Monday with their next home game scheduled for Thursday. At that point, Rossi will have been out of the Wild’s lineup for at least a month. The 24-year-old has 13 points in 17 games so far this season.
Central Notes: Cooley, Foligno, Rossi, McCarron
The Utah Mammoth were shut out yesterday by the St. Louis Blues, an unfortunate outcome for Utah that was made even more unfortunate due to an apparent injury suffered by star center Logan Cooley. The 2022 No. 3 pick had to be helped off the ice yesterday after a collision with Blues forward Alexei Toropchenko. Toropchenko did not receive a penalty on the play initially, but was assessed a match penalty after the game’s officials convened.
While we are currently awaiting an official update on Cooley’s status, FanDuel Sports Network’s Andy Strickland reported that Cooley “avoided serious injury” and that his apparent injury yesterday was more “very painful” muscle cramping than any kind of serious structural damage. Assuming Strickland’s report is accurate, that would be a massive, positive development for the Mammoth. Cooley is among their most important offensive players with 23 points in 26 games. He recently signed an eight-year, $10MM AAV contract extension to remain in Utah.
Other notes from the Central Division:
- Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes told the media yesterday, including The Athletic’s Joe Smith, that forward Marcus Foligno will not travel with the team for its upcoming four-game road trip. In addition, he said the club is still evaluating whether center Marco Rossi will travel. Foligno is on IR with a lower-body injury and has missed each of the Wild’s last two games. Rossi is also on IR with a lower-body injury but is further along than Foligno by all accounts. He’s missed the Wild’s last eight games, last playing on Nov. 11.
- The Nashville Predators may be without towering forward Michael McCarron for a short while, as head coach Andrew Brunette revealed, per team reporter Brooks Bratten, that McCarron is currently considered “day-to-day” with an undisclosed injury. According to Bratten, McCarron “didn’t play much after his fight with Logan Stanley in the first period,” which could be the cause of his injury. If McCarron misses any games, the Predators won’t lose much offense (he has just five points in 25 games) but will likely miss McCarron’s penalty killing. He ranks second among Predators forwards in short-handed time on ice per game with 2:26.
Wild Place Marco Rossi On IR With Lower-Body Injury
4:30 p.m.: As expected, the Wild announced that Rossi has been placed on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Minnesota’s announcement indicated that Rossi would miss the next few weeks.
9:13 a.m.: Wild top-line pivot Marco Rossi will miss at least the team’s next few games – potentially longer – with a lower-body injury, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports Friday. Minnesota will be down to the bare minimum of 12 forwards if he’s not available, and they don’t have an open roster spot. Hence, an injured reserve placement is likely to permit the recall of a forward from AHL Iowa.
It’s unexpected news after Rossi made his last appearance, an overtime loss to the Sharks on Tuesday, in full without incident. He missed one game in October due to a lower-body issue. Russo reports that he’s not fully healed from that injury and will need a more extended break to get back to 100 percent.
The 24-year-old has remained the centerpiece of Minnesota’s top line this season with Kirill Kaprizov after a tumultuous summer. He was involved in a drawn-out round of contract negotiations after reaching restricted free agency, and early in the summer, it seemed likelier than not that he’d be dealt away. No trade materialized, though, and he returned to the Wild on a three-year, $15MM bridge deal in late August to avoid being a training camp holdout.
While the Wild didn’t have the best October, Rossi was on a roll. He took the absence of his other routine wingman, Mats Zuccarello, in stride and rattled off 11 points (two goals, nine assists) through his first 11 games. However, he’s only managed two goals in six games since the calendar turned to November and has just one point in his last five. With Zuccarello now back in the fold and registering two assists through his first three games of the season, he and Kaprizov will be centered by Joel Eriksson Ek for the foreseeable future as Rossi exits the lineup.
There’s no timeline yet for Rossi’s return, but he’s expected to be out long enough to intensify the Wild’s documented pursuit of a middle-six forward. Picking up a depth center if one hits waivers might also be a stopgap possibility to keep veterans Ben Jones and Tyler Pitlick, neither of whom has recorded a point this season in a combined 15 appearances, out of a regular spot in Rossi’s absence.
As Russo writes, it’s 2022 first-rounder Danila Yurov who stands with the most to gain while Rossi rehabs. The 21-year-old rookie has just two goals with a -5 rating through his first 13 NHL games, but that’s to be expected given his fourth-line deployment and lack of special teams usage. Yurov has averaged 9:51 of ice time per game and is starting just 36.2% of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone. He’s spent most of his time centering Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin, who’ve combined for no goals and four assists this season. A promotion to top-nine duties is a far more suitable assignment for Yurov’s capabilities and should result in a significant increase in productivity.