Wild announce bad news on veteran defenseman

Absent from Tuesday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Alex Goligoski is out with a lower-body injury. For context on that injury, Michael Russo of The Athletic reported that Goligoski injured himself sometime during practice with the team Monday.

Playing on the last season of a two-year, $4M contract signed with the Wild back in 2022, Goligoski is not getting off to the best start in what could be his final year in the NHL. In the team’s first two games, Goligoski has averaged just over 17 minutes of ice time, scoring zero points, blocking five shots, and already carrying a -3 rating.

In Minnesota’s most recent game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Goligoski would take a tripping penalty near the beginning of the second period, which helped the Maple Leafs take a 4-1 lead on the night after a Tyler Bertuzzi goal on the power play. The Wild finished the second period on a high note, pulling themselves one goal away from tying the game. Nevertheless, with about seven minutes gone in the third period, Goligoski took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, eliminating Minnesota’s momentum for the rest of the evening.

Replacing Goligoski in the lineup Tuesday night will be 29-year-old defenseman Dakota Mermis, who has yet to play in any games for the Wild up to this point. More importantly, however, if Goligoski continues his run of play on the Minnesota blue line, he could find himself on the waiver wire once captain Jared Spurgeon returns from his upper-body injury.