The Minnesota Wild have announced that forward Marcus Foligno will miss several weeks due to an unknown injury. This certainly hurts the team as he was one of the team’s strongest performers in 2020-21. Michael Russo of The Athletic provided the news early Sunday afternoon.
Hearing injured winger Marcus Foligno will be sidelined at least a few weeks for the #mnwild. Off to a great first half, he's a point from 200 in his career.
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 14, 2021
Wild Marcus Foligno Out
The 29-year-old Foligno has been one of Minnesota’s best players so far this year. He has contributed seven goals and 16 points in 23 games while averaging 14:31 per game. The scoring rate of .70 points per game is the best of the veteran’s career since he was a rookie in 2011-12. His possession stats indicate some possible good luck; a 44.7 Corsi For and -4.7 relative Corsi are very poor, but Foligno was still making it work within Minnesota’s system.
The Buffalo Sabres originally drafted the Buffalo, New York native in the fourth round of the 2009 Draft. He played for the hometown organization from 2011-12 through 2016-17. He scored 49 goals and 116 points 347 games before the Sabres traded him to Minnesota for a package including Jason Pominville and Marco Scandella. Overall, Foligno has been a solid two-way NHL forward with 82 goals, 199 points and 1656 hits in 588 games.
How Minnesota Replaces Foligno
The Wild have several options to replace Foligno for the foreseeable future. Victor Rask was promoted to the first line in Sunday’s game to centre Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov and he scored a goal. The 28-year-old is certainly one option for the Foligno’s spot at this time. Joel Eriksson Ek is another as he seems to have found a new gear this season.
This injury isn’t ideal, but Minnesota should be able to hold onto their spot near the top of the West Division. They have few serious injuries and the system doesn’t rely too heavily on any one player. The team is obviously stronger with Foligno given how he is performing this season, but it shouldn’t derail their playoff efforts. However, it may give the team an incentive to acquire some additional centre depth as the deadline approaches.
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