The Minnesota Wild have assigned forward Brendan Gaunce and defenseman Carson Lambos to the AHL’s Iowa Wild, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. Russo points out that these moves could indicate that Minnesota could get multiple injured players back before they host St. Louis on Tuesday. Minnesota is facing an extensive list of absentees, including injuries to superstar Kirill Kaprizov, team captain Jared Spurgeon, and top-four defender Jacob Middleton. Both Kaprizov and Middleton could reasonably make it back for Tuesday’s game, should they hit an upswing in their recovery. Russo also shared that forward Devin Shore should be clear to practice, after being a last-minute scratch for Minnesota’s Saturday win over Carolina.
The focal piece of this move is former first-round pick Lambos, who will now have the first NHL call-up of his career cut short without an NHL debut. Lambos was the 26th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, selected with the pick Minnesota acquired after sending Jason Zucker to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lambos was a smooth and diligent two-way defender in his draft year and managed double-digit goals and point-per-game scoring in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 WHL seasons, even captaining the Winnipeg Ice in the latter season. But unfortunately, that production has yet to appear at the pro flight. He scored 14 points in 69 games as an AHL rookie last season, but may not even reach that point this season – with five points in 27 games putting him on track for just 12 points in a full year. He’ll now return to the minors and continue fighting to improve his game-to-game impacts.
Lambos will be joined by Gaunce, who’s found far more success in the AHL this year. His 11 goals and 17 points through 22 games currently leads the Iowa Wild in goals and ranks second in points. Gaunce has stepped into the mix of depth forwards used to fill in for Wild injuries, playing in five NHL games but yet to score a point this season. His only notable stat changes stand as four penalty minutes and a -3.