Competition to stick with the Minnesota Wild for opening night was fierce and one player the team is high on is now headed back to the AHL.
Jason Zucker and Jake Dowell were re-assigned to the Wild’s farm team in Iowa and as Michael Russo of The Star Tribune shares, it’s not meant to be a permanent move.
Again, as the Wild has said over and over this camp, in its mind, whoever didn’t make the opening-night roster simply won’t be in the lineup opening night vs. L.A. on Thursday. It’s not, “not making the team.”
Forwards Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Justin Fontaine all are sticking with the team for now. The curious name here is Fontaine as he doesn’t have the sort of offensive or overall upside Zucker does or the defensive abilities of Dowell.
What Fontaine does have going for him, however, is his career playing at Minnesota-Duluth during his college days. Can’t be bad for appearances to have a good local guy sticking around... right?
This won’t be the last we hear from Zucker, but Wild fans are likely not going to be too pleased at getting the season started like this.
