Wild Activate Jakub Lauko From Long-Term Injured Reserve

The Wild are getting at least one piece of their forward lineup back this weekend against the Predators. The team announced they’ve activated winger Jakub Lauko off long-term injured reserve, assigning forwards Ben Jones and Devin Shore to AHL Iowa in corresponding transactions after they cleared waivers earlier in the week.

Lauko, 24, has been out of action for most of the past two months with a lower-body injury, believed to be a muscle strain in his groin. The Czech depth forward initially exited the lineup in late November and missed six games before returning. That stint in the lineup was short-lived, skating in three games before reaggravating the issue and landing on the shelf again. He last appeared on Dec. 14 against the Flyers.

Lauko missed 21 games overall due to the issue. He hasn’t significantly impacted the lineup, posting four points and a minus-six rating in 24 appearances while averaging 10 minutes per game. Yet that’s still a considerable upgrade from the poor possession play and non-existent point production both Jones and Shore were providing. His return should boost the Wild’s fourth line as the club looks to get out of a brief 1-3-0 skid.

Whether they’ll be able to ice a full fourth line against Nashville in two days is a different question. They’re down to exactly $775K in cap space after the activation and reassignments, only permitting the recall of one league-minimum salary for the game. Kirill Kaprizov isn’t expected to be ready to come off injured reserve, and Marcus Johansson is now expected to miss time after taking an elbow from Oilers superstar Connor McDavid in last night’s loss, head coach John Hynes told Jessi Pierce of NHL.com. That would mean they’d be playing a forward short, even with a recall.

They could end up with 18 skaters if star defender Brock Faber is ready to return from an upper-body injury or if they retroactively move Kaprizov to LTIR to free up cap space for an additional recall. The latter is doable, as he’s already missed the 24 days and 10 games required for an LTIR placement, so he’d be eligible to come off anytime.

Regardless, the versatile and energetic Lauko now gets a chance to jumpstart his game. Acquired from the Bruins for Vinni Lettieri last summer, he has eight goals and 21 points in 107 NHL games dating back to his debut with Boston in the 2022-23 campaign.