The Minnesota Wild have lost another key forward due to a lower-body injury. News emerged that veteran forward Joel Eriksson Ek is out injured on a week-to-week basis. This is after the Swede suffered an injury in practice on Monday.
Updated Joel Eriksson Ek story, by @joesmithnhl.bsky.social and mewww.nytimes.com/athletic/615…
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Minnesota Wild Forward Joel Eriksson Ek Out Week-to-Week with Injury
Eriksson Ek has only played for the Wild over his nine-year NHL career. The 28-year-old has nine goals and 15 assists for 34 points in 42 games this season. He has a Corsi for of 51.8 and a relative Corsi of 7.0.
He has 131 goals and 163 assists for 294 points in 540 career games. Minnesota originally drafted him in the first round, 20th overall of the 2015 NHL Draft.
The Karlstad, Sweden native has represented his country at the international level. Eriksson Ek played for Sweden at the 2017 IIHF World Juniors, where the team placed fourth. However, he did win a gold medal at the senior level in the 2017 IIHF Worlds. The forward was also on the bronze medal-winning Swedish squad in 2024.
He was also one of the better players on the Sweden roster at the most-recent Four Nations Face-Off tournament. Eriksson Ek tallied a goal and an assist for his home country.
What It Means
This is another massive blow to the Wild’s lineup. Minnesota is already without superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov, who may be out longer than expected according to general manager Bill Guerin.
The Wild are also without Ryan Hartman, who is still serving a suspension. Hartman’s ban still has another four games left before he can return back to the lineup. In order to carry an extra forward, the Wild did also waive veteran defenceman Travis Dermott.
Eriksson Ek was a strong defensive centre and his loss will be felt. Minnesota has Marco Rossi, Freddy Gaudreau, Marat Khusnutdinov and Devin Shore as centre’s that are currently left on the team’s roster.
Main photo by: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
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