Wild put Filip Gustavsson on LTIR, recall Matt Kiersted

The roster move came late in the afternoon, after a practice that already looked rough.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

Wild recall Matt Kiersted and place Filip Gustavsson on LTIR

Gustavsson is still recovering from offseason hip surgery, and LTIR is how Minnesota gets around a tight cap. The Wild had only $354,000 in space after Nick Foligno went on regular IR, and Foligno's $900,000 hit still counts there. That isn't enough to call anybody up without sending somebody down. Moving Gustavsson off the books is what made room for Kiersted, a depth defenseman the Wild have shuttled back and forth from Iowa plenty of times.

It also matters because of who was in the crease Thursday morning. Jesper Wallstedt didn't skate, so the nets went to Calvin Pickard and an emergency backup.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

Jesper Wallstedt and Zach Bogosian also aren't practicing. Calvin Pickard and EBUG Peter Thome have the nets. My feature yesterday on Thome t.co/YoWR3K2qVR

Nobody has said why Wallstedt sat, and Russo didn't call it an injury, so don't read too much into it yet. Still, with Gustavsson on LTIR and the presumed starter missing practice, Pickard sharing the ice with EBUG Peter Thome is not a picture any Wild fan wants. Zach Bogosian was also absent on the back end, which goes some way to explaining why the extra defenseman got called up.

The injury list goes past the goalies. Quinn Hughes logged a huge night and got the day off, and Marcus Foligno, not to be confused with his brother Nick, who is already on IR, was limping after the game.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

Quinn Hughes, who logged 31:39, isn't practicing, so possibly told not to practice today. Marcus Foligno isn't practicing and he was visibly limping after the game, so that could be why the Rieger Lorenz recall. Olli Maatta is practicing.

That's where Rieger Lorenz comes in. Minnesota swapped Tyler Pitlick out for him earlier Thursday. Lorenz is a 22-year-old the Wild drafted 56th overall in 2022, and he helped Denver win the 2026 NCAA title, scoring the tying goal in a 2-1 win over Wisconsin. He has 2 goals and 3 points through Iowa's first 2 games, after the kind of camp that got people in the organization talking.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

With Wild already banged up, Lorenz’s NHL debut almost certainly coming Saturday updated post-practice blog t.co/sJLf7Lix11

Saturday at 5 PM CT in Florida wraps up a 3-game road trip, against a Panthers team that will be happy to see a banged-up opponent. Watch who gets the start in net, whether Hughes and Marcus Foligno are back after a day off, and how much ice time Lorenz gets in his first NHL game. Nick Foligno can't come off IR until next week at the earliest, so the Wild are going to have to get through this stretch with what they've got.