Wild Place Jakub Lauko On IR, Recall Jesper Wallstedt

The Minnesota Wild have placed forward Jakub Lauko on injured reserve hours after leaving the team’s Saturday game against Philadelphia with a lower-body injury. Lauko played three minutes in the win. He will now have to miss at least seven days of action, making next Saturday’s game against Winnipeg his next chance to step into the lineup. In a similar and surprising move, Minnesota has used an emergency recall on the goalkeeper Jesper Wallstedtwhich suggests some kind of damage to Philip Gustavsson. Gustavsson backed up Marc-Andre Fleury on Saturday. There has been no indication of what he may be up to.

This news adds to a growing list of injuries in Minnesota. winger Mats Zuccarello and defender Jonas Brodin each returned from injury on Saturday – but the team is still out Joel Eriksson Ek, Jacob Middletonand Yakov Trenin. The former two are both on IR, while the latter was out of Saturday’s game just hours before it started due to an upper body injury. Fortunately, Trenin is only listed as questionable for the team’s Sunday game against Vegas by Michael Russo of The Athletic.

Even Lauko has faced an injury bug as he returned on Tuesday from an earlier lower-body injury that kept him out for six games. It’s unclear if the two injuries are related, but he returns to IR for the second time this season. The routine absence has made it difficult for Lauko to find his footing in new surroundings after sending him to Minnesota for Vinnie Lettieri and a trade of fourth-round picks. Lauko has recorded four points and a -6 in his first 23 games with the Wild – though he has found his footing as a pitcher, ranking third on the team with 46 hits. Lauko is in his third NHL season, spending the previous two in Boston, combining for 17 points and 220 hits in 83 games.

The Wild deployed Reese Johnson in Trenin’s role on Saturday. Assuming Trenin returns soon, Johnson could slide over to fill Lauko’s role. Minnesota also carries Liam Ohgren and Devin Shore. Neither has scored in the NHL this season – Ohgren in eight games and Shore in 11 – but they are both top scorers in the minors. Ohgren has scored 11 points in 12 games for the AHL’s Iowa Wild, while Shore has 10 points in 14 games. Trying to get the monkey off both players’ backs at the NHL level could be a good use of time, especially given Ohgren’s case for being Minnesota’s top prospect.

If not for Ohgren, the top prospect title would likely go to Wallstedt, even in the midst of a rough year. Wallstedt has a 5-6-1 record and .874 save percentage in 12 AHL games this season, including five games allowing five or more goals. That recall could be the balancing act, though his chance to see ice time will largely depend on the severity of Gustavsson’s injury. Wallstedt played in his first three NHL games last season and posted a 2-1-0 record and .897 save percentage. He’s been an AHL starter since 2022-23, posting a much more encouraging 45-40-10 record and .905 Sv% in 95 games.