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Mats Zuccarello

Morning Notes: Zuccarello, Greaves, Thompson

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After missing the first month of the season due to injury, Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello returned to the ice on Nov. 7 and has been solid for the Wild, scoring two points in three games. With his health no longer in question, the focus of the conversation surrounding the veteran forward has shifted from his availability to his future in Minnesota beyond this season. Zuccarello, 38, is playing out the final year of a $4.125MM AAV deal with the Wild, and is a pending unrestricted free agent.

Zuccarello commented on his future to The Athletic’s Michael Russo yesterday, stating that when deciding on his future, he will “take the season” to see how he feels, and will continue his career only if he feels he is “good enough to play at this level.” He added that he wants to be mindful that he does not “take a spot” on the Wild if he feels he is not capable of playing at a high level anymore. So far, Zuccarello hasn’t shown indications of any steep decline in form, but given that the 38-year-old will be closely monitoring his play to determine whether to continue his career, his ongoing form will be a notable storyline to watch in Minnesota.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets leaned heavily on netminder Jet Greaves this past week, a change from most of the season where they’ve split starts evenly between Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins. According to The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline, that should not be viewed as an indication that Columbus is moving away from Merzlikins and moving to a more traditional starter-backup model. Per Portzline, head coach Dean Evason maintains that the decision on which goaltender to start remains a day-to-day decision. Greaves has posted an .897 save percentage across 10 games this season, while Merzlikins has a .908 through seven games played. Merzlikins dealt with an illness this past week while Greaves got the larger workload.
  • The Buffalo Sabres have struggled as of late, and are currently trying to navigate their way out of a five-game losing streak. One of the cards head coach Lindy Ruff is playing to help jump-start his team’s offense has been moving star forward Tage Thompson back to the middle of the ice. Thompson has been playing center, in part due to the injury suffered by incumbent first-line center Josh Norris. Thompson told The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn that the move back to center has allowed him to feel “like [him]self,” and that he feels he can have more control over the game from that position. Thompson ranks second on the Sabres in scoring with 14 points in 17 games, and if this move back to center can help unlock an even higher level of play for the 28-year-old, it’s a move Ruff might have to consider even after the team gets players back from injury.

Wild Activate Mats Zuccarello

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The Wild announced they’ve activated winger Mats Zuccarello from injured reserve. The top-six fixture will make his season debut in a couple of hours against the Islanders. They’ve been operating with an open roster spot for quite some time, so no corresponding move is required.

Minnesota didn’t hold a morning skate before today’s game. That’s to be expected on the second half of a back-to-back with travel – they lost to the Hurricanes 4-3 in Carolina last night. As such, it’s unclear where Zuccarello will slot into the lineup, but it’s assumed he’ll reprise his familiar role on the top line with Kirill Kaprizov and Marco Rossi.

Zuccarello had a lower-body issue pop up in the closing weeks of the offseason and wasn’t cleared to participate at the beginning of training camp. The initial expectation was that he’d miss the start of the regular season, and that was confirmed when the Wild said in late September that he’d be out for a minimum of seven to eight weeks. That makes his recent progress and today’s activation around a week and a half ahead of schedule.

His return is of special note for a Wild club that’s been looking to add an impact scoring winger on the trade market. They’re off to a sluggish 5-7-3 start, due mostly to uncharacteristically poor defensive play. They’re bottom-five in the league or close to it in most metrics – 29th in goals against per game (3.67), 29th in penalty killing (68.8%), 26th in shots against per game (30.1), and 29th in expected goals against per game at 5-on-5 (2.47).

Zuccarello won’t have much of an impact there, but the Wild are hoping he can at least help them outscore their problems. Fellow aging veteran Marcus Johansson stepped into Zuccarello’s top-line home to start the year and performed admirably, rattling off six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 15 games. The Wild hope he can keep some semblance of that momentum up as he shifts down into a second-line job with Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek – the former of whom is clicking at a point per game – to boost the depth output from their middle-six.

Now in his age-38 season, expectations for Zuccarello should start to be tempered. He’s still been a minutes-muncher for the Wild as he ages, averaging 19:39 per game last year, but he can’t keep that workload up forever. His 0.78 points per game last season were his lowest since 2019-20 and a 14% dropoff from the year prior. If that decline ends up being linear and Zuccarello only operates at around a 55-point pace this year, Minnesota’s search for another top-nine piece will only intensify.

Central Injury Notes: Hintz, Duchene, Thomas, Zuccarello

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The Dallas Stars will be without some significant talent ahead of the Western Conference Final rematch tomorrow night. According to team reporter Brien Rea, the Stars won’t have forwards Roope Hintz or Matt Duchene against the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow night. Additionally, Jake Oettinger is also doubtful, given that he and his wife just had a child.

It’s more of the same for Duchene. The 17-year veteran will have missed Dallas’ last eight games due to an upper-body injury after tomorrow night’s contest. He’s only appeared in four games this year, scoring one goal and two assists with a 52.2% success rate in the faceoff dot.

Meanwhile, Hintz will miss his fifth straight game due to an undisclosed injury. He’s been a much bigger void to fill, given that he’s been a point-per-game player to start the campaign. Since Duchene left the lineup, the Stars have averaged two goals per game.

Other injury notes from the Central Division:

  • In some positive news, the St. Louis Blues will return Robert Thomas to the lineup tonight. According to Lou Korac of the NHL, Thomas returned to practice this morning and was included in all line rushes. He’s missed the team’s last four games with an upper-body injury. Unfortunately, Thomas’s absence was notably evident, as the Blues lost all four contests.
  • The positive news isn’t only isolated to St. Louis. According to Joe Smith of The Athletic, Minnesota Wild veteran Mats Zuccarello looks very close to returning. Zuccarello suffered a lower-body injury before the start of the regular season. Like Thomas, his absence has been noticeable. Despite leading the league in power-play goals, the Wild are only averaging 1.61 even-strength goals through their first 13 games.

Central Notes: Zuccarello, Kantserov, Aamodt

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The Wild could soon be getting a needed boost up front.   On Friday, head coach John Hynes indicated (Twitter link) that winger Mats Zuccarello is within a week or so of returning to the lineup.  The 38-year-old has yet to suit up this season due to a back injury that also caused him to miss training camp.  While Zuccarello isn’t a major scoring threat, he’s one of Minnesota’s better playmakers and is coming off a solid showing in 2024-25 that saw him record 19 goals and 35 assists in 69 games.  His eventual return would go a long way to giving them a second scoring line, an area that has been an issue in the early going this season.

Elsewhere in the Central:

  • Blackhawks prospect Roman Kantserov is in the final year of his KHL contract, leading some to hope that he will come to North America for next season. Speaking with RG’s Sergey Demidov, the 21-year-old indicated that he’d like to test himself in the NHL but isn’t planning on making a decision on his future until next year when his deal expires.  A second-round pick in 2023 (44th overall), Kantserov had 38 points in 47 games last season and is off to a better start in 2025-26, notching a league-high 13 goals and eight assists in 21 appearances so far.
  • Wyatt Aamodt’s stint with the Avalanche was short-lived. Just two days after recalling the blueliner, the team announced (Twitter link) that they have sent him back to AHL Colorado.  The 27-year-old didn’t play on this recall, keeping his career NHL appearance total at two and his point total at one, a tally in last season’s final game.  Aamodt has a goal and five assists in nine games with the Eagles so far this season.  The move leaves Colorado with just six healthy blueliners at the moment but Samuel Girard has been skating in recent days and is thought to be nearing a return.

Wild Recall Hunter Haight, Place Nico Sturm And Mats Zuccarello On IR

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The Minnesota Wild have shaken up their roster a bit ahead of Opening Night. Forwards Nico Sturm and Mats Zuccarello have officially been placed on injured reserve with a back injury and lower-body injury respectively. In their place, the Wild have recalled forward prospect Hunter Haight. It’s not yet clear if the Wild plan to award Haight with his NHL debut in their season-opener against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

What is clear is that both Zuccarello and Sturm could miss significant time. Zuccarello underwent surgery to address his injury in late-September. The team confirmed that he is expected to miss at least seven-to-eight weeks as he recovers from the procedure. Sturm’s timeline isn’t as clear after he reaggravated a back injury during training camp. Initial reactions to his injury suggest bad news on the horizon, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. That’s unfortunate news after the 32-year-old center signed a two-year, $4MM contract with Minnesota this summer.

The early beneficiary of the two injuries could be Haight. The 21-year-old centerman played his first full season in the minor-leagues last year. He posted a stout 20 goals and 34 points through 67 appearances, enough to rank him second on the Iowa Wild in goals and fifth in points. Before his move to the AHL, Haight was a standout utility-knife in the OHL – routinely rivaling point-per-game scoring with a presence that was felt all over the ice. He’s undersized, but still showed an ability to battle through traffic and win space in front of the net. Those attributes convinced Minnesota to draft Haight with the 47th-overall pick in 2022. Now, three years later, the young center could soon get a chance to show his might at the top level.

Haight was one of only five Wild players to score a goal in the preseason. He played in four games. His training camp showings suggested a lot more improvement was needed, though he never looked much out of place against NHL talent. Should he slot into the lineup, Haight would likely step into the team’s fourth-line center role – potentially next to fellow rookie Danila Yurov.

Mats Zuccarello Out “Minimum” Of Seven To Eight Weeks

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While the Wild ensured one top-six winger will be staying with the club long-term earlier today, they’ve lost another in the short term. The team confirmed Mats Zuccarello will miss a “minimum” of seven to eight weeks with the lower-body injury that’s sidelined him for all of training camp so far.

There was concern Zuccarello would miss the start of the regular season back at the beginning of camp. This is a bit more significant than just the start of the season, though. A seven-to-eight-week timeline from today puts his most optimistic return date on Nov. 18, by which Minnesota will have already played a quarter of its season. In all likelihood, it could be Thanksgiving or even further down the calendar until he’s able to make his season debut.

Now 38 years old, the 5’8″ Zuccarello has kept up his reputation as a consistent top-six scorer in what should be his twilight years. The Norwegian forward ranked fourth on the team with a 19-39–54 scoring line in 69 appearances last year, his sixth in Minnesota after first signing there as a free agent in 2019. While injuries have remained a concern – he hasn’t hit the 70-game mark in the past two years – he’s clicked above expectations since signing with the Wild and has scored at a 70-point clip per 82 games during his time there.

That’s a sizable absence in the scoring department, especially considering he still averaged over 19:30 of ice time per game last year. While he’s spent a good portion of his tenure in St. Paul opposite Kirill Kaprizov on the top line, Matt Boldy ended up getting that job in the playoffs last year after Kaprizov returned from surgery. Zuccarello dropped down to a middle-six role with Marcus Johansson and Frédérick Gaudreau, the latter of whom has since been traded to the Kraken. Since he hasn’t been in camp, it’s hard to predict where the Wild planned on slotting him this season, but it likely would have been in second-line duties while keeping the top line loaded with Boldy.

Zuccarello’s top-six vacancy could mean increased opportunity for veteran Vladimir Tarasenko to start the year. The Wild picked him up from the Red Wings for future considerations over the summer after the four-time All-Star had just 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games for Detroit. The Wild are now his sixth team in the last four years, but he could get a shot at second-line duties with Joel Eriksson Ek as his centerman. There’s also a clear path for one of the Wild’s recent first-rounders, namely Liam Ohgren and Danila Yurov, to snag top-nine roles as they look to establish themselves as full-timers.

One player who won’t be getting an opportunity in the lineup is 220-game veteran Brett Leason. He was released from his PTO today, the club announced. He had a 5-12–17 scoring line in 62 games for the Ducks last year before being non-tendered.

Injury Notes: Eller, Lucic, Zuccarello, Sturm

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Lars Eller told reporters today, including Bruce Garrioch of TSN, that he had abdominal surgery last July, from an ailment that had been lingering since last November. Despite the injury, the veteran center managed to skate in 80 regular season games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, notching 22 points, subsequently earning a one-year, $1.25MM contract with the Ottawa Senators, his fifth NHL club.

As per Garrioch, there is yet to be a decision on when Eller will debut for the Sens, soon to add to his Danish-leading 1,116 career NHL regular season games, but it appears he is on the right track. 

Other injury updates from across the NHL:

  • St. Louis Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery told reporters, including Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, that Milan Lucic is day-to-day with a groin injury. The former star is vying to extend his career, having missed the 2024-25 season before being signed to a professional tryout from the Blues on August 19, the latest of several past notable players to sign such tryouts with the organization. Lucic was unable to skate today, and as mentioned by Montgomery, the ailment is unfortunate timing as he fights to earn a spot.
  • Michael Russo of The Athletic noted a pair of back injuries affecting the Minnesota Wild. 38-year-old star Mats Zuccarello remains sidelined, and per Russo, there is no further update at this time. Previously, it has been raised that surgery is a possibility. Meanwhile, Nico Sturm, who signed a two-year deal to return to the Wild, will be held out for 4-5 days preemptively, due to a back injury sustained in a team scrimmage.

Snapshots: Zuccarello, Flames Power Play, Perfetti

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Veteran forward Mats Zuccarello has begun Minnesota Wild training camp limited to light activity due to an injury, the full nature of which currently remains undisclosed. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported today that Zuccarello has an appointment on Monday that will “determine surgery vs no surgery,” according to Wild head coach John Hynes. Zuccarello is already slated to miss the start of the regular season per prior reporting from Russo, but depending on the medical opinion received tomorrow, the absence could conceivably extend quite a bit.

The loss of Zuccarello, 38, would be a major one for a Wild team entering a potentially franchise-altering regular season. Franchise face Kirill Kaprizov is a pending UFA and while the club has been vocal in its willingness to do pretty much anything in order to secure Kaprizov’s signature on an extension, Kaprizov has thus far appeared hesitant to commit the future of his playing prime to Minnesota. The best thing the Wild can do to convince Kaprizov is likely to win as much, and as early, as possible – something that will be made more difficult by any extended Zuccarello absence. Zuccarello scored 19 goals and 54 points in 69 games last season, and in his absence his lineup spot has been filled by 2022 first-rounder Liam Ohgren, who has reportedly had an impressive start to camp.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji reported today that Calgary Flames 2024 first-round pick Matvei Gridin is currently taking reps on the club’s top power play unit, alongside MacKenzie Weegar, Connor Zary, Nazem Kadri, and Matt Coronato. While it’s unlikely that Gridin ultimately settles into that role in the immediate term, it does shed some light on how the organization might view Gridin’s long-term future. The 19-year-old Russian winger is a skilled offensive creator who scored 36 goals and 79 points in 56 games for the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes last season. He could end up a long-term power play weapon for the Flames if he can continue his development in 2025-26.
  • With Nikolaj Ehlers’ offseason departure, the Winnipeg Jets lost 24 goals and 63 points of production to the Carolina Hurricanes. One of the areas where Ehlers was particularly lethal was on the man advantage, and with his departure, a spot on the Jets’ top unit has opened up. The Athletic’s Murat Ates reports from Winnipeg training camp that young forward Cole Perfetti is “first in line” to replace Ehlers on the Jets’ top unit. Perfetti filled in for Ehlers on that unit when Ehlers was injured last season, so he should be able to hit the ground running. It’s a big year for Perfetti, who scored a career-high 50 points last season. He’s a pending restricted free agent and likely due for a notable raise from the $3.25MM cap hit he’s playing out his current deal on.

Injury Notes: Wild, Dorwart, Huberdeau

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During today’s scrimmage in the Minnesota Wild’s training camp, Michael Russo of The Athletic provided updates on a few injuries to the Wild’s roster. Notably, Russo reported that Nico Sturm was removed for precautionary reasons, and Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin participated in a light shootaround before the scrimmage.

Although he was originally expected to return for the team’s practice this afternoon, Russo later reported that Sturm was absent, though there are no concerns about his long-term availability. The same can’t be said for the latter two mentions.

There’s no surprise with Brodin’s absence from the skates, given that he’s expected to miss the start of the regular season due to offseason upper-body surgery. Meanwhile, reports from yesterday indicated that Zuccarello could also miss the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign. While specific details about the injury have not been disclosed, Russo indicated in his report that more information will be available after Zuccarello has a longer appointment with the team’s medical staff.

Other injury updates from around the league:

  • The Philadelphia Flyers announced that forward prospect Karsen Dorwart would miss the next few days due to an upper-body injury. The 23-year-old was signed out of Michigan State University as an undrafted free agent with the Flyers last year, appearing in five games down the final stretch of the regular season. Despite debuting in the NHL already, Dorwart’s spot on Philadelphia’s opening night roster was not set in stone, and he’ll have to make the most of his training camp after returning from injury.
  • Earlier this morning, Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg reported, and later confirmed by the Calgary Flames, that Jonathan Huberdeau would miss the second day of training camp for maintenance. There are no present injury concerns surrounding Huberdeau, and it’s not uncommon for established veterans to take maintenance days throughout training camp.

Central Notes: Connor, Evangelista, Zuccarello, Neighbours, Molendyk, Reid

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As expected from reports a few weeks ago, the Winnipeg Jets have begun extension negotiations with All-Star winger Kyle Connor. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much substantial progress made before the start of training camp.

Murat Ates of The Athletic shared a quote from General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, saying, “We’ve had great dialogue with KC’s representatives and we continue to have that. He’s obviously a big part.” A few moments later, Cheveldayoff added, “Every conversation, you’re hopeful that this is the one that closes it. But it’s not… I don’t know that it’s a timeframe sort of thing. You just keep on working at it.”

Regardless, Connor is poised for a major payday, from the Jets or elsewhere, on the heels of a career year and with the salary cap continuing to rise. Although he didn’t match his career-high in goals, he did in points, scoring 41 goals and 97 points in 82 games, averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game.

Other notes from the Central Division:

  • Despite being the only member of the team without a new contract heading into training camp, there’s little chance forward Luke Evangelista is moving on from the Nashville Predators. Speaking with Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean, General Manager Barry Trotz said that trading Evangelista is “not even a thought.” Over the last two years, playing full-time in Nashville, Evangelista scored 26 goals and 71 points in 148 contests.
  • In a vague report from Michael Russo of The Athletic, it doesn’t appear that veteran forward Mats Zuccarello will start the Minnesota Wild’s training camp on time. Without specifying the nature of the injury, there’s some concern in Minnesota that Zuccarello will miss some of the regular season due to the injury.
  • The St. Louis Blues announced that forward Jake Neighbours would miss the first three days of the team’s training camp due to a family matter. As expected, the team didn’t share any insights into the matter, though it doesn’t appear they expect Neighbours to miss much more time. The former first-round pick has become a quality secondary scorer for the Blues over the past few years, recording 49 goals and 84 points in 159 games.
  • Moving back to the injury train, Daugherty reported that Nashville prospects Tanner Molendyk and Cameron Reid are both out with lower-body injuries. Molendyk’s injury likely stems from being on the receiving end of a large hit during the team’s rookie camp, while Reid’s injury (likely longer term) was also suffered during rookie camp.

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