Wild Lose Captain Jared Spurgeon To A Bad Leg Injury

ST. PAUL - Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon suffered a bad leg injury in the second period against the Nashville Predators.

The Wild, who are already without Kirill Kaprizov, Jake Middleton, and Jakub Lauko, will now likely be without their captain for quite some time.

Spurgeon, 35, went into the corner in the second period with Predators rookie forward Zachary L'Heureux. The 5-foot-11 forward swept Spurgeon's feet from underneath him and down Spurgeon went, hard into the boards.

His right knee hit the boards hard. Yakov Trenin came in to fight L'Heureux and instantly and got a roughing minor. L'Heureux was given a match penalty for the slew foot.

L'Heureux has a history of being a dirty player. He was suspended nine times in the Quebec Major Junior League, including 10 games for jamming his stick between panes of glass and jabbing a 16-year-old kid. According to Michael Russo's tweet. He also was suspended twice in the AHL.

If Spurgeon is out long-term, the Wild have David Jiricek and Cameron Crotty as two right-shot defensemen down in the AHL that could replace him.

Jiricek, 21, was acquired by the Wild in November. He has played 55 career games in the NHL across three seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Jiricek was the Blue Jackets' sixth overall pick from the 2022 Draft.

He was traded to the Minnesota Wild by the Blue Jackets on Nov. 30, 2024, for Daemon Hunt and four draft picks, including a 2025 first-round pick.

Related: Wild Acquire David Jiricek From Columbus For Daemon Hunt, Picks

The young defenseman scored his first goal with the Iowa Wild on Tuesday night.

Wild head coach John Hynes did not have an update on Spurgeon's status after the game. He called it a cheap play and something he assumes the league will look at more.

Defenseman Declan Chisholm called it a pretty dirty play as well.

"When you have a player on their team do what he did, that gave us life," Hynes said. "Obviously, it was a cheap hit and it allowed us to get on the power play and that probably was the difference in the game was that undisciplined play on his part and our team took advantage.”

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