Recent Surgery Could Result in Key Minnesota Wild Defenseman Missing More Time

After what president of hockey operations Bill Guerin called a “kinda boring” round one of the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday night, the Minnesota Wild were plenty busy on Saturday, making five total draft selections — one pick in the 2nd round, three picks in the 4th and a one final pick in the 5th.

Minnesota actually entered Saturday with four draft picks, before a trade sent depth defender Declan Chisholm to the Washington Capitals, in exchange for their third 4th rounder (No. 123), along with Chase Priskie, a 29 year-old pending free agent with just four total games of NHL experience during his pro career.

Jonas Brodin could miss Minnesota Wild games after surgery

But the biggest news came later in the day, when Guerin met with local media members and revealed that veteran defenseman Jonas Brodin recently underwent offseason surgery on a lingering upper-body injury that could cause him to miss regular season games in 2025-26.

Bill Guerin confirmed what I have been intimating recently on the pod and that's that Jonas Brodin had surgery on his upper body a few weeks ago. Guerin thinks he will miss some time at the start of the season. He was cleared to play in the worlds, but the injury flared up…

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 28, 2025

Related: Minnesota Wild Trade Away Forward in Salary Dump Move

According to Russo’s account, this is the same injury Brodin suffered in January, which caused him to miss 13 games from Jan 8 to Feb 3. He then returned to the Minnesota Wild lineup for three games in early February, before being cleared to play for Sweden in the Four Nations Tournament.

Immediately following the 2025 midseason international bloodbath, Jonas Brodin returned to the Wild lineup for four games, before he went back on the injured list again, with the same upper-body injury. The 31-year-old top-six defenseman again returned for Minnesota’s final 12 games, and their latest first-round playoff exit.

ELITE DEFENSEMAN JONAS BRODIN pic.twitter.com/diMBa3op0a

— nikki ☽ (@kingfleury29) March 28, 2025

Now, from the sounds of it, the former No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft could miss the start of the 2025-26 regular season, after toughing it out for most of last year, where he managed just 50 games played, totalling 4 and 16 assists on 22:57 average TOI.

Next season will be Brodin’s 14th in the National Hockey League and he’s pretty much been a staple in the Minnesota Wild’s top-6 since he first climbed into the lineup back in 2012.