The Minnesota Wilds’ young left winger, Matt Boldy, left Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs with what appears to be an upper-body injury. The forward did not practice with the team this morning. Boldy is expected to be out “week to week” and will not be placed on LTIR. Boldy’s absence will tremendously impact the penniless hockey club as they attempt to regroup from the 7-4 loss delivered by the Leafs.
Matt Boldy Injured
Wild star Matt Boldy considered week-to-week with upper-body injury. https://t.co/4NaFfXuKrw pic.twitter.com/S5ZDL2jpPL
— theScore (@theScore) October 16, 2023
The injury occurred after Boldy bounded off the bench and entered the play in the neutral zone. Linemate Marcus Johansson saw an open Boldy skating toward the Leafs’ zone and passed to Boldy. After crossing the Leafs’ blue line, Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly hit Boldy. The hit pinched Boldy into the boards, and he went down. With over ten minutes left in the game, Boldy grabbed his left shoulder, shakily got to his feet, skated back to the bench, went down the tunnel and never returned. Teammate Marco Rossi replaced Boldy just in time to witness Rielly assist Toronto with their fifth goal scored on Goaltender Filip Gustavsson.
At age 22, Boldy is one of the Wild’s greatest offensive weapons. Beyond Boldy and Kaprizov, the Wild do not have much scoring depth. Last season Boldy was able to register 63 points in 81 games. With under two games into the 2023-24 season, Boldy has already picked up an assist on opening night and scored on Toronto before becoming injured. The absence of this Massachusetts native will massively handicap Minnesota.
What is Next For the Minnesota Wild?
Unfortunately for Minnesota, staying healthy this season is essential to success. The Wild have already lost defensive leader Jared Spurgeon to injury after being hit by a Chicago Blackhawks prospect wanting to make an impression in the preseason. Now, the team must move forward without a top forward. Neither injury is long-term and will not alleviate cap space. Therefore, Minnesota is still unable to afford to call up players from Iowa who make over $875,000.
To finish the road trip, the Wild plan to dress 11 forwards and seven defencemen for Tuesday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Staff elected to keep Rossi and Connor Dewar lines intact due to the success they have been having. Rather than reassigning Jujhar Kaira, Vinni Lettieri or Nic Petan (currently can’t afford Sammy Walker) to Boldy’s spot on the Joel Eriksson Ek line, Alternate Captain Kirill Kaprizov will double shift on first and second lines. Kaprizov has had a bit of a slower start this season. Normally Kaprizov leads in team scoring by a mile. Yet, the superstar has been overpassing with Mats Zuccarello and is still looking to score his first of the season. Perhaps the Matt Boldy Injury will grant Kaprizov the opportunity to elevate his performance this season.
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