Minnesota Wild To Recall Sammy Walker, Adam Beckman
5:39 pm: The Wild made the recall official on Monday night. Walker and Beckman join the team ahead of their game against Winnipeg tomorrow.
3:56 pm: According to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, the Minnesota Wild are expected to recall a pair of forwards in that of Sammy Walker and Adam Beckman from the Iowa Wild, their AHL affiliate. Russo adds that forward Marcus Foligno, who is suffering from a lower-body injury, is not expected to travel with the team tomorrow morning to take on the Winnipeg Jets later that night. In addition to Foligno, the Wild are also going to be without forward Mason Shaw, who is serving a two-game suspension.
Foligno, who was injured in Wednesday’s game in Anaheim against the Ducks, missed Thursday’s game against the San Jose Sharks with the injury and now it appears he’ll be missing tomorrow’s game too. There doesn’t appear to be a timetable for Foligno, however after Thursday’s game, Wild head coach Dean Evason told Russo he expected the forward to be okay after the four-day holiday break. Though the veteran clearly isn’t good-to-go just yet, Evason’s comments show this injury likely isn’t to be anything long-term.
Walker, 23, made his professional debut this season after a four-year stint at the University of Minnesota. The former Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick has been a standout thus far with Iowa, registering 24 points in 23 games, and made his NHL debut back on December 10th, skating in four NHL contests to date.
The 21-year-old Beckman has also skated in just four NHL games this season after making his debut last season. The forward turned pro back in 2020-21 after a stellar WHL career with the Spokane Chiefs. A 2019 third-round selection of the Wild, Beckman is off to a solid start with Iowa this season tallying 15 points in his first 25 AHL games.
Ryan Hartman Activated Off IR, Sammy Walker Sent To AHL
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.