Wild’s Matt Boldy on track to play regular-season opener
Matt Boldy, sidelined on Sept. 22 by a lower body injury, went through his first full practice on Wednesday and is expected to be ready for the season opener Oct. 10 against Columbus at Xcel Energy Center.
“We expected him to be back. He’s on track,” coach John Hynes said. “To do it now, have a full skate — yesterday was kind of a morning skate type of thing — Today was a regular practice and went through all that, so that looks good.”
Boldy, 23, was part of the Wild’s best line last season — one of the best in the NHL — and has scored a combined 60 goals over the past two seasons. He practiced Wednesday with Marcus Johansson and center Joel Eriksson Ek.
With four five days before the Wild must pare down to 23 players, Marco Rossi has moved between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello on the top line, and Ryan Hartman centered Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin on the third.
Although Boldy is on track to play the season opener against the Blue Jackets, he might not play in the final exhibition game Friday night in Chicago.
Jake Middleton, who missed Tuesday’s skate because of what Hynes called a bruise, practiced Wednesday. “For him to be able to come out and practice full today was positive,” the coach said.
Grosenick has surgery
Veteran goaltender Troy Grosenick, who signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Wild in July, had surgery Tuesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the 2024-25 season.
According to the Wild, Grosenick is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of the 2025-26 season.
Grosenick, 34, spent last season with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and was expected to play for the Wild’s top affiliate in Iowa. He has played in four NHL games in his career, with San Jose in 2014-15 and Los Angeles in 2020-21.