Surging Wild about to get Ryan Hartman back from injury
After missing the last 20 games with a shoulder injury, Ryan Hartman appears to be on the verge of returning to the Minnesota Wild.
"He's close," said Dean Evason. "He's going to skate tomorrow and then we'll make a decision. Obviously a lot of the decision is on the medical team."
The Wild aren't holding a morning skate Thursday, but Hartman was scheduled to get out on the ice and skate with assistant coaches and if all goes well it sounds like he'll be in the lineup when the Wild host the Blackhawks on Friday.
"He's ready. He wants to play. Now it's the right decision of when, but as we just said to him, if he's ready to play he's going to play," said Evason.
Who gets sent packing when Hartman returns? The odd man out could very well be Sammy Walker, who played just 6 1/2 minutes in Minnesota's 4-1 win over the Red Wings Wednesday night.
Hartman was injured in a fight in Minnesota's Oct. 30 game against the Blackhawks, though specifics about his shoulder injury haven't been released by the team. Michael Russo reported in early December that the Wild chose to rehab Hartman's injury naturally "but nobody knows whether that'll work or if he'll ultimately need surgery."
What's also unclear is if Hartman will be given his spot back as the top line center between Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov.
Minnesota has won nine of 12 games and is 16-11-2 this season, good for third place in the Central Division and just five points behind the Dallas Stars for first place.
Related: Watch: Ryan Reaves delivers bone-crushing hit against Red Wings
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.