Earlier today, the Minnesota Wild made their activation of veteran winger Marcus Foligno from injured reserve official, and reassigned Hunter Haight to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
Foligno, 34, hasn’t played since Nov. 26 due to a lower-body injury, an injury that ultimately cost him nine games. Foligno is a key defensive forward and off-ice leader for the Wild, someone who provides value to head coach John Hynes even when he’s not producing. That’s been the case this season, as Foligno has just two assists and no goals in 23 games played. He managed 14 goals and 29 points last season, but that offense has seemingly dried up this year.
Foligno is still the Wild’s No. 4 penalty-killing forward in terms of ice time this season, behind Matt Boldy, Nico Sturm, and Joel Eriksson Ek. His return will give the Wild’s penalty kill a much-needed boost, as despite the team’s incredible run of form, their penalty kill only ranks 22nd in the NHL in success rate. Getting Foligno back should help increase that number, even if it may come at the cost of some offensive production.
Now healthy and back in the lineup, the clear mandate for Foligno, beyond just maintaining his level of consistency as a defensive forward, will be finding ways to get back onto the scoresheet with a little bit more regularity. While he could certainly maintain his lineup spot as a leader and pure defensive specialist, the level of investment the Wild have in him changes the expectations surrounding his play.
He’s set to cost the club $4MM against the cap through 2027-28, and at that rate, the Wild are likely looking for a level of production more in line with last season’s numbers. The Wild are unlikely to expect Foligno to do much offensive heavy lifting, but he’s capable of being a more impactful secondary scorer than he’s been so far in 2025-26.
Foligno’s return cost Haight his spot on the NHL roster, but that’s not a massive surprise as Haight has been shuffled between Iowa and Minnesota quite a few times this season.
The 2022 second-round pick has scored five goals and six points in 16 AHL games this season and has dressed for two NHL games, though the most recent was on Oct. 11. Haight’s contract carries a two-way structure with an $800K NHL salary and $82.5K AHL salary. While he didn’t play any games on his most recent recall, his time on the NHL roster did have a notable financial benefit.