Kirill Kaprizov to Return Early; Joel Eriksson Ek Week-to-Week

The Minnesota Wild have just four games and six days remaining on their 2022-23 regular season schedule. Early Friday, they got bad news on Joel Eriksson Ek, who was declared “week-to-week” after sustaining a lower body injury while blocking a shot in a loss to the Penguins on Thursday night.

That bad news was quickly followed by good news on their injured superstar, Kirill Kaprizov. After reports came out earlier in the week that he would not return until Monday, at the earliest, the Wild announced Friday that he would return on Saturday to help Minnesota in their weekend night game vs the St. Louis Blues.

Kirill Kaprizov WILL return for the #mnwild tomorrow. Gus Nyquist is questionable

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 7, 2023

With or without Kaprizov, the Wild will miss Ek for every moment he is out of the lineup. Still, this team needed their superstar back, sooner rather than later. And now he is.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan