Tough news for the injury-riddled Minnesota Wild.
They have stumbled out of the gate and are near the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 2-2-2 record. Part of the reason is injuries.
Leading scorer Mikael Granlund and winger Nino Niederreiter have played only a few games and veteran winger Zach Parise has not played at all due to back issues.
Granlund is expected to return on Tuesday from a groin injury, but the 33-year-old's injury has required surgery to repair a herniated disc.
Parise will miss 8-to-10 weeks. The silver lining is that, as back surgeries go, this is a relatively quick timeline to return.
Even so, as HHOF Jay Greenberg writes here at HockeyBuzz today, teams simply can't afford to spend too long chasing the pack. The Wild (2-2-2) aren't in horrible shape record wise but they are decimated by injuries and may be in hang-in mode for awhile.
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