Last night, in the team’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild defenseman, Jonas Brodin, went down with an injury after a hit-from-behind from Evander Kane. In an update today, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Brodin will be out for a significant amount of time due to the hit.
In the short-term, the Wild will have veterans Alex Goligoski and recently-acquired Zach Bogosian to rely on in Brodin’s stead, but their defensive depth will ultimately be tested without one of their top defensemen in the lineup for the foreseeable future. Leading the team in ATOI, Brodin has scored one goal and nine points in 25 games, mostly impacting the game on the defensive side of the puck.
If Minnesota’s current depth is unable to properly fill in the hole on the left side of the defense in Brodin’s absence, the team may look to once again call up defenseman Daemon Hunt to Minnesota. Although he was unable to score a point during a five-game stretch in late October and early November, Hunt has scored one goal and eight points in 12 games for Minnesota’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, so far this season.