Familiar faces were plentiful at TRIA Rink on Tuesday morning as the Minnesota Wild prepared for their first meeting with divisional rival Winnipeg at their morning skate.
Hanging out at the practice facility that did not exist when they were on the Minnesota roster, 2000s standouts Marian Gaborik, Brian Rolston and Pierre-Marc Bouchard got reacquainted with old friends like Wild broadcaster Tom Reid, and got to meet several of the current Wild players in advance of their appearances at Grand Casino Arena as part of the franchise’s 25th anniversary celebration.
Perhaps the best news for the Wild and their fans was a few familiar faces on the ice. Marcus Foligno practiced after missing the previous game due to an upper body injury. Alongside Foligno, Mats Zuccarello was on the ice for the first time this season as his recovery from a lower body injury continues.
After morning skate, Wild coach John Hynes listed Foligno as questionable to play versus the Jets, but the veteran was a full participant in warmups and played wing on the team’s third line with Vinnie Hinostroza at the other wing and Ryan Hartman at center.
The injury was the latest development in a start to the season for Foligno that has mirrored the rest of the Wild — namely, disappointing. He had no goals or assists in Minnesota’s first nine games, and is one of the players that they are counting on to provide more of a physical presence, which is among the things the Wild have lacked in the early going.
For Zuccarello, his work on Tuesday was the next step toward a return that the team hopes will come in November.
“Zuccy, it’s good to see him back out. He’s in that next level of progression for him where he’s starting to ramp it up a little bit individually,” Hynes said. “Now he’s back into team practices, which is good to see, too. For him, he has made some really good progress.”
Zuccarello, 38, was among the team leaders in assists last season with 54 in 69 games played, and would give the Wild another top six forward option upon returning to the lineup. He missed 13 games last season after getting hit below the belt by a teammate’s shot during a game — an ailment which required surgery in November 2024.
When the Wild announced his current injury in late September, they predicted Zuccarello would be out for up to eight weeks. Hynes said that is still the schedule they anticipate.
“Timeline remains the same,” Hynes said, noting that Zuccarello is not being exposed to any on-ice contact yet. “I think he’s in week five today, and it was six to eight (weeks). So he’s progressing well, and we’ll see where it goes from here.”
Hynes added that veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian, who missed his sixth consecutive game versus Winnipeg and has been seen wearing a walking boot, is considered week to week.
Johnson returns
Last month, Wild general manager Bill Guerin did not have an on-ice job available for veteran defenseman Jack Johnson, who participated in the Wild’s most recent training camp on a professional tryout, but was released before the regular season started.
Johnson, 38, played half of last season for Columbus and with more than 1,200 NHL games on his roster, is sliding toward retirement.
On Tuesday, Johnson was shadowing Guerin and some of the Wild’s hockey operations staff as the former Shattuck-St. Mary’s and University of Michigan standout begins learning the off-ice side of the NHL.
Guerin said he was happy to welcome Johnson back to Minnesota to get a look at the way they handle hockey operations, and it was reminiscent of 2010. That is when Guerin made the transition from playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins — the last stop in a 1,263-game NHL career — to a development coach role there.
He eventually worked his way up to assistant general manager in Pittsburgh before being hired to his first NHL general manager job with the Wild in 2019.
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