Wild excited to get Spurgeon and Kaprizov back: 'We all miss his smile, that beautiful smile'

ST.

PAUL, Minn.

One of the most endearing things about Mats Zuccarello when you interview him is how sarcastic he can be.

Sometimes as a reporter, it can be a challenge, however, because you have to parse through the veteran wingers quotes to determine whats actually real versus whats not.

Wednesday after practice, when Zuccarello chatted with The Athletic about what life has been like for the Wild and his pal Kirill Kaprizov with the superstar sidelined the past dozen games, there was one portion of the interview we can guarantee was completely untrue and never actually happened.

Advertisement As Kaprizov sat down two stalls over to untie his skates, Zuccarello, suddenly speaking exaggeratedly loud, said, You can really sense the whole group lighting up when he came into the room during our meeting this morning and yelled, Guys, Im back! We were all like, What? Really? Whoa!!! Kirill, Kirill!!! And then we jumped all over him.

He loved it.

Its really good to have him back.

We all miss his smile, that beautiful smile, and you know ...

his positivity.

Kaprizov looked up, rolled his eyes and hunched over to continue untying his skates.

As of Wednesday afternoon, neither Kaprizov nor Spurgeon had been activated off long-term injured reserve or regular injured reserve, respectively.

But 3 12 hours after coach John Hynes told reporters he was cautiously optimistic both players would return Thursday night against the Utah Hockey Club after talking to them on the ice, a team source told The Athletic that Kaprizov and Spurgeon would definitely return.

Right after Hynes met with Spurgeon on the ice, he just pulled Kaprizov over pic.twitter.com/NocI40jDUF Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 22, 2025 Kaprizov skated in line rushes on his normal top line with Marco Rossi and Zuccarello on Wednesday, while Spurgeon (who missed nine games) was back on the second pair with Declan Chisholm .

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 option to get below the cap ceiling once Kaprizov is activated from LTIR.

Sure, the Wild could have placed Jonas Brodin on retroactive LTIR if they think hed be sidelined past Feb.

1.

Even if theres a chance he is Brodin (lower-body injury) and Marcus Johansson (concussion) are progressing off the ice, Hynes said, but havent started skating the Wild want to avoid being in LTIR so they can try to begin to accrue cap space again before the trade deadline, something they have not been able to do with Jake Middleton , Jakub Lauko and Kaprizov on LTIR at times in the past five weeks.

Advertisement With Kaprizov off LTIR, the Wild would be roughly $820,000 over the cap.

Placing Travis Dermott ($775,000) on waivers would have meant the Wild would have had to also reassign Devin Shore .

But with Kaprizov back, Shore is the Wilds 13th forward, and the team needs an extra for a five-game road trip that starts Sunday in Chicago.

Plus, judging from Wednesdays defense pairs in practice, Jiricek wasnt going to play with right-shot Spurgeon, Brock Faber and Zach Bogosian ahead of him.

#mnwild lines (Kaprizov and Spurgeon look back, so Wild will have to make some moves to cut $) Kaprizov-Rossi-Zuccarello Boldy-Eriksson Ek-Hartman Ohgren-Gaudreau-Foligno Trenin-Khusnutdinov-Lauko Shore Middleton-Faber Chisholm-Spurgeon Merrill-Bogosian Dermott-Jiricek Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 22, 2025 Barring any more injuries, Dermott will likely land on waivers once Brodin returns, so waiving Dermott now to keep Jiricek but not play him made no sense.

Jiricek, acquired from Columbus in November, played six games during his first callup and impressed with a goal and an assist his past two games, including a highlight-reel play to set up Yakov Trenin s winning goal in Colorado on Monday.

Ohgren to Jiricek to Trenin to GOAL pic.twitter.com/I1RGTOf53g Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 20, 2025 Still, at 21, theres a lot of room to grow, which has Hynes excited for what he feels Jiricek can turn into with more seasoning in his own zone.

Hes really shown some of his very good attributes, Hynes said.

You cant teach size.

Hes got a competitive nature to his game, his ability to move the puck and see plays and execute.

His shot has been a factor, and youve seen at times where hes got great offensive instincts and has the ability to make plays.

Like any young defender, when you come in, theres lots of times were like, OK, I see it, I see it.

Then theres other times, like any player, plays under pressure on breakouts, thats a difficult task at the NHL level.

Sometimes the D-zone, you know the details of when to go, when not to go, when to hold ice when not to hold ice.

The nice thing is that theres much more positive in seeing him play and play regularly than there are things he needs to work on.

You have it narrowed down a little bit, too.

Its not this whole litany of things that he has to continue to work on like any player.

Theres finer points to his game.

Advertisement The Wild won seven of 12 games without Kaprizov, who initially was listed as day-to-day as the Wild tried to figure out what was going on with him.

Perhaps hell explain in detail Thursday what happened when hes cleared to talk to reporters injured Wild players cant talk to the media.

But its clear neither Kaprizov nor the Wild expected him to miss more a month.

Hes getting older now, so hes got to listen to his body, you know? Zuccarello cracked.

But no, seriously, it sucks for everyone, especially for him.

He doesnt get to play.

I know how it is to be out for a longer period of time and it always sucks.

But I would say as a team-wise, we battled without him and its good for us ...

and for him.

He gets a couple weeks off, you know? Again, Zuccarellos last part of the quote was dripping with sarcasm, but he said in all seriousness, He can get us through strong the second part of the season here, you know? Its never fun to be injured, but when it happens in the middle of the season, sometimes I feel like you get to work on your body again.

You feel strong, you come back, usually even better.

Its also easier to be hurt when you see a team win.

Then you really can take time and heal and instead of risking coming back early and re-hurting yourself and all that stuff.

If you lose every game, youre probably rushing back.

Kaprizov still leads the Wild with 23 goals and 50 points in 34 games, but the downside of missing 12 games and 13 this season is how severely it hurt his chances of winning the Hart Trophy after being a front-runner.

Ive never cared about the Hart because I havent been good enough to worry about that, but Im sure he would like to be in that conversation, Zuccarello said.

But to be honest with you, Kirill only cares about winning and going out there everyday and playing 100 percent for the team.

Thats what he more cares about.

Advertisement Still, I would like to see him be up for the Hart because I hope he would invite me to Vegas.

In fact, maybe we can both go because hed help me be a Hart Trophy candidate, too.

Has a team ever had two people up for the Hart? I want to go to Vegas.

Unfortunately, even if Kaprizov plays well enough again to be a Hart Trophy finalist, neither player will likely get to go to Vegas.

The league isnt expected to hold an actual awards show this summer.

(Photo: Matt Blewett / Imagn Images).

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