Brodziak Tweaks Back, Misses Two Days of Camp

Wild fans who stopped by the team’s open practices and scrimmage on Saturday may have noticed that presumed fourth line center Kyle Brodziak wasn’t on the ice. Brodziak is said to have tweaked his back on the opening day of scrimmage, with Michael Russo reporting that coach Mike Yeo holding him off the ice was just “precautionary.”

On Sunday, Russo tweeted out that Brodziak is off the ice again.

Little is known, but the veteran centerman should be able to slide right into the lineup even if he misses some time during camp. He’s not fighting for a spot on the team and has a pretty firm hold on his position.

Interestingly, with the line he’s practicing with presumed to be the makeshift fourth line, the team slid prospect Tyler Graovac into Brodziak’s spot. That line features Jason Zucker on left wing and Justin Fontaine on right wing. Graovac had previously been centering Raphael Bussieres and Zack Phillips on Team A’s fourth line. (Here’s a breakdown of camp rosters.)

One of the less talked about storylines (and honestly less important at this point) is sorting out what the depth chart in Iowa looks like and who on forward is most likely to get call-ups when injury strikes. There are a number of veteran players like Stephane Veilleux and Brett Sutter, tough guy Joel Rechlicz, some untested free agent signings like Michael Keranen and Brady Brassart, Brett Bulmer who has gotten a look in the NHL a few times, and some depth guys who have been developing nicely like Kurtis Gabriel and Graovac, among others. Unlike previous years, it’s unclear at this point who is next in line.

According to a camp recap, Russo makes it seem like Yeo likes what he’s seen from Graovac. Talking about Graovac, Yeo told Russo:

"“I thought that line did a great job,” said Yeo, who liked Zucker better in the first half of the scrimmage than the second. “Fontaine’s looked excellent for me in both scrimmages and you’ve got to give Grao a lot of credit today. I thought he did a really good job jumping into that line. He continues to look better every day. So I thought that line did a good job. Tough matchups, but they really held their own and made some plays. That’s a good start.”Like I’ve said the past few weeks, Graovac looks like a player. As for the tough matchup Yeo referred to, that Graovac line mostly went head-to-head vs. Thomas Vanek-Koivu-Charlie Coyle."

We hope to have an update on how prospects are faring so far following today’s practice.

And we’ll have more on Brodziak as information becomes available. For now, it looks like it’s nothing to worry about.