The Minnesota Wild have announced that defenceman Jonas Brodin will be out for three-to-four weeks after successful surgery on his left hand.
NEWS: #mnwild's Jonas Brodin underwent successful surgery on his left hand today. He is expected to return to game action in approx. 3-4 weeks → https://t.co/FsaIfw45OW pic.twitter.com/sEDtDVdv21
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) February 7, 2018
Jonas Brodin Injured
Brodin suffered the fracture in his hand in a game on Tuesday, February 6th against the St. Louis Blues in the second period. It is somewhat unclear how the injury happened but reports say he left the game in the second period.
In 53 games this season with the Wild, he has five goals and ten assists for 15 points. Brodin has also amassed 24 penalty minutes. His 15 points are ten points off his career high which he achieved last season in 68 games. His Corsi for percentage is 45 at the time of the injury, and -2.4 relative to his team. Brodin starts over 50% of his shifts in the defensive zone which will be felt on the Wild blue line.
In his six-season career with the Wild, the 24-year-old Swede has 23 goals and 71 assists for 94 points in 384 games. Brodin has also added 102 penalty minutes. His career PDO is over 100, and he has started almost 53% of his shifts in the defensive zone. He was originally drafted 10th overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. He was the third defenceman taken in the draft, behind Adam Larsson (4th), and Dougie Hamilton (9th).
Moving Forward
Fortunately for the Minnesota Wild, they have three other very good defenceman. Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, and Mathew Dumba will need to shoulder a bit more of the load. The injury to Brodin gives the players like Mike Reilly, Nate Prosser, and Gustav Olofsson a chance to play some top four minutes as well as some possible special teams. Expect the older Nate Prosser to get the first crack at the top four, but Olofsson and Reilly will get some minutes in that spot.
The Brodin injury does hurt the Wild dearly, but they do sit in the final wild-card spot, just three points back of the Stars for the first spot. If the Wild can play .500 hockey or better for the next while, they should be in a good spot when Brodin returns.
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