As teams exit the playoffs, the injuries and scheduled repair come to light. We had previously found out that Mikael Granlund was playing with a broken hand during the first round playoff series with the Blues.

We have now learned that Wild defensemen Marco Scandella and Christian Folin were also dealing with injuries that required surgery, and now news comes out that Jason Zucker is going to require surgery for a sports hernia.

Marco Scandella had arthroscopic surgery on his left hip yesterday and is expected to be ready for the start of the season.

Christian Folin had shoulder surgery on Monday, to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder.

The time table for normal sports hernia recovery is 2-3 months which would look like the the end of the Sumer or right as training camp is scheduled to begin for Zucker's return.

So with Chuck Fletcher stating that the Wild will be making changes during the off season, injuries to two defenseman along with Zucker (a player Fletcher would like to protect) how does this affect the protection plans?

Fletcher must get ready for the NHL draft as well as the expansion draft. New Vegas GM George McPhee has said that he is open to discussing deals with teams to either not pick a player or make a deal pre-draft involving multiple players.

That presents some interesting options for Fletcher as he has assets that he can move and like every other team he is going to lose a very good player.

Looking at the Wild defense, that is most likely where the Wild will lose their player to Vegas. We know that under the protection restrictions everyone with a no movement clause must be protected, unless the player waives their no movement restriction.

So for the Wild that means Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Mikko Koivu, and Ryan Suter must all be protected. The hope is that Pominville would waive his "no movement" which would allow him to be exposed, and most likely not selected by Vegas either. That would free up another forward position for Fletcher to work with.

On the defense, Fletcher can only protect three, or two besides Suter. That would mean two of Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella, and Matt Dumba will be exposed.

The pre-draft models all show that Spurgeon will be protected and then the choice of which of the remaining three, Scandella, Brodin, or Dumba will be protected.

That is not taking into account the cap ramifications of both next year and future years as more of the Wild youth will be coming off entry level contracts and will most likely be due significant raises.

It is certainly not your typical off-season and things will continue to heat up as teams exit the playoffs and now that the draft lottery is set as well.


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