The Minnesota Wild placed their top-scoring contributor on LTIR on Friday in Kirill Kaprizov because of an aggravated lower-body injury. Minnesota has been one of the NHL's biggest surprises in 2024-24, sitting in second place of the Central Division with 58 points.

A depleted Wild roster could soon receive the ultimate shot in the arm — but maybe not as soon as possible.

The move was necessary to make the call-ups needed to have a full roster. It's retroactive, so Kaprizov can return whenever he's ready.

The Minnesota Wild placed Kirill Kaprizov on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) on Thursday, retroactive to Dec. 23 when he suffered his injury. The move, while removing the Russian forward from the Wild lineup, will also help the team navigate a cap crunch and address its injury-plagued lineup thanks to the cap relief LTIR provides.

While Kaprizov could be back this week, Wild coach John Hynes did not "want to put a timeline" on his potential return, according to Smith, but added the fact Kaprizov is skating every day and continuing to do more and more each day is "a good sign." There are signs Minnesota could be gearing up to have some players return soon.

Kaprizov has missed the past 10 games with a lower-body injury that has required lots of treatments and pushed-back timetables.

Kirill Kaprizov (lower body) was placed on the Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), Marcus Johansson (concussion) was placed on the Injured Reserve, Ben Jones was sent to Iowa, Jakub Lauko (lower body) was activated off LTIR and Brendan Gaunce, Liam Ohgren, and Devin Shore were recalled.

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes provided injury updates Friday, Brock Faber will travel with the team this weekend, Kirill Kaprizov will not.