Injury Update: Zach Parise, Jared Spurgeon, Josh Harding Skate

There was a bit of good news at today’s Wild practice, which took place at Marucci Arena. Zach Parise, Jared Spurgeon, and Josh Harding were all on the ice.

For Harding, this was his first regular season practice of the year. Parise (concussion) has missed the last two games and Spurgeon (shoulder) has missed the four games since the October 30 match against San Jose.

None of those guys will be in the lineup on Tuesday as the Wild take on the Devils, but, according to Mike Yeo, all three will be traveling with the team to New Jersey. They’re bringing this trio along to keep them practicing with the team and progressing toward a return.

All three wore red no-contact jerseys, but by all accounts both Parise and Spurgeon were skating hard and looked like they’re close to being game-ready.

Parise’s return will be big for the Wild, who have lost three straight. You can’t replace a player like him. And the Wild can’t replace Spurgeon, who is arguably the team’s second best defender, notching two goals and four assists in his first nine games this season.

One underrated return might be Harding, who is further from a return than the other two. The team won’t be in a rush to get him in with two healthy goaltenders already in the lineup, but his return could be quietly be a step forward for the team.

There’s not a goalie emergency in Minnesota, but while Darcy Kuemper started hot, he’s cooled off recently and Niklas Backstrom has struggled.

Though he’s only played three times, Backstrom, who had offseason surgery again this summer, has a save percentage of just .869, which won’t be stealing any wins for the team. In fact .869 (though it’s a small sample size) is worse than the .889 he posted last season through 21 games, a career-worst for Backstrom. His 5-on-5 save percentage this season is just .900 and his adjusted 5-on-5 save percentage is .889. There’s not really a silver lining there.

Having a reliable back-up to Kuemper (or even a challenger to Kuemper) might help the Wild pull out more of the close games that they’ve lost recently. Because while they’ve lost three straight they still haven’t been outshot by a team and have had the upper-hand in possession in every game this season.

You can’t assume that the Harding who will return will be the Harding we saw in the fall / early winter of 2013, but having that Harding around is good news for any team.

Before he’s back he’ll likely spend some time in Iowa on a conditioning stint — remember he hasn’t played a game since December 31, 2013, so we’re likely quite a ways out from seeing him in a game. (That’s probably good news for the Iowa Wild, who have been terrible. They could use the help.)