The Minnesota Wild are trying to stay afloat near the top of the West, a mission that will be easier if Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon return Thursday, as expected.

Sean Treppedi is a Newsweek contributor based in the Greater New York City Area. His focus is reporting on the NFL and NHL. He follows breaking news, trade/free agency speculation, game analysis ...

And the clearest signal that Kaprizov and Spurgeon would be back is that the Wild reassigned defenseman David Jiricek two hours after practice. If you did the salary cap math, it really was the only ...

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes said he is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will return to the lineup against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.

Minnesota fell back on depth, defense and Filip Gustavsson’s goaltending and improved its NHL-best road record.

The Minnesota Wild will have to temporarily find a way to survive without star forward Kirill Kaprizov amid the latest news.

Their lineup got a big boost Thursday when star Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon were activated from injured reserve. The two were in the lineup for the Wild's 4-0 loss to Utah.

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes said he is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will return to the lineup against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.