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.
