Darcy Kuemper On IR, Three Called Up, Bickel On Waivers

Busy day for the Minnesota Wild. The “minor” injury Darcy Kuemper suffered at practice yesterday is apparently less minor than the team first thought. Kuemper will sit out of Thursday’s game against Chicago and at least the next six days, as he’s been placed on injured reserve.

That means Niklas Backstrom is getting the net and the team has recalled John Curry from the Iowa Wild.

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With how the schedule plays out, it looks like Curry will likely see some game action on this call-up, unless the Wild make a trade for a goaltender — like Cam Ward, who they’re rumored to have inquired about. Curry is likely to get the net because Backstrom hasn’t been performing that great lately and the team has a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday that includes travel. They’re probably better off giving Curry a start versus trying to push Backstrom into playing both games. The Wild are in St. Paul against the Nashville Predator on Saturday and then headed to Chicago for a road game on Sunday.

On forward, the Wild are still without Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise has been placed on non-roster status as he’s away from the team following the passing of his father J.P. Parise, and the team has placed Stu Bickel on waivers with the intention of sending him to the Iowa Wild. The team also reassigned forward Brett Sutter to Iowa yesterday.

That leaves some gaps up front. To that end, the team has recalled Jordan Schroeder, who is expected to play on the team’s second line — an all-Gopher line — with Thomas Vanek and Erik Haula.

On defense Nate Prosser returned to practice, but will not play Thursday. Marco Scandella is also out, after getting injured in Tuesday’s game against San Jose. That means Justin Falk stays in the lineup and he will be paired with Jonathon Blum, who was also recalled today. Blum has played just one game with the NHL Wild this season.

That’s it for roster updates until today’s game preview.