The Minnesota Wild have already been forced to play without their best player in Kirill Kaprizov for nearly two months — and they were dealt another brutal injury blow on Tuesday. Joel Eriksson Ek was hurt in practice on Monday and was subsequently placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, the team announced.
The key center has been labelled week-to-week.
“You just have to go about your business the way we do it,” head coach John Hynes said on Tuesday, per The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith. “You can only control what you can control, and we’ve shown this year that we have a next-man-up mentality and we have to get to the identity that gives us a good chance to win. It’s unfortunate for Ekky himself, and it’s unfortunate to lose him, but we’ve got to win with the guys that we have.”
Eriksson Ek went through practice without issue on Monday, Hynes said, but spoke to the trainers right afterwards. Hynes was informed shortly afterwards that one of the team’s top players would be out longer-term.
“He just didn’t feel good after,” said the bench boss, per Russo and Smith. “Right now I don’t have enough detail of what it is. It’s still kinda figuring it out.”
Losing Eriksson Ek is a brutal blow for an already shorthanded Wild team. The Swedish forward was one of his country’s best players at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and he picked up right where he left off by registering an assist in a 4-3 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday afternoon.
Overall, Eriksson Ek has managed nine goals and 24 points over 42 games in 2024-25. It’s been a bit of a down year for the 28-year-old, who eclipsed the 60 point mark in each of the last two campaigns.
Either way, the Wild will now have to adjust to life without both Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek.
The sledding gets even tougher for the Wild
Despite already losing 147 man days to injury in 2024-25, the Wild have been playing some great hockey on both ends of the 4 Nations break. Minnesota has won three games in a row and six of eight, improving to 34-19-4 and sitting third place in the Central Division.
With 25 games left in the regular-season, there’s a great chance that the team will still be playing when the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs kick off at the end of April. The club is currently four points back of the Dallas Stars for second, and four ahead of the Colorado Avalanche with two games in hand.
Kaprizov has only played three games for the Wild since December 23, and he underwent surgery for his lower-body injury at the end of January. General manager Bill guerin said recently that the Russian superstar would be out “longer than we thought.”
There’s a very real chance that both Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek miss the rest of the regular-season, and if the latter is placed on LTIR, the front office would recoup $5.25 million in cap space to use ahead of the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline.
If the same is done with Kaprizov, that would be another $9 million the organization could use to improve the roster between now and March 7.
The Wild are back in action against the Red Wings on home ice on Tuesday night.
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