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ORIGINAL: stfrank

And more bad news from the Athletic.

Wild’s top pick Marco Rossi will not play this season: Sources


By Michael Russo Jan 30, 2021 181
There are not a lot of things that could overshadow Saturday night’s blowout defeat to the division rival Colorado Avalanche, a game in which the Wild were already playing without their best player, Kevin Fiala, because of a three-game suspension; a game in which they’d lose forward Marcus Johansson to injury and eventually defenseman Matt Dumba to an injury that could sideline him indefinitely.

But during the second intermission of a 5-1 loss, the Wild confirmed a report from The Athletic on Friday that first-round pick Marco Rossi had returned home to Austria and acknowledged for the first time that what kept him off the ice during training camp and beyond this month is complications due to having COVID-19 in November.

The Wild were vague in their announcement in part because of the federal law restricting the release of medical information. They provided no specifics as to what lasting effects Rossi has been dealing with, but sources told The Athletic on Saturday night that the team’s medical staff is confident the 19-year-old center will make a full recovery. While not getting into details, general manager Bill Guerin also said on a recent The Athletic podcast that the Wild are confident he’ll be OK long term.

However, he will not play this season, sources said.

Rossi will return to Minnesota in six weeks to be re-evaluated by doctors. But until then, he’s supposed to stay off the ice, not work out and pretty much take it easy. The objective is for Rossi to solely worry about his health and focus on getting ready for training camp next fall.

After Rossi signed his entry-level contract in late October, the Wild assigned the young center to the ZSC Lions in the Swiss League to play professionally until Wild training camp would open up. Rossi played one game, then tested positive for the virus and missed all of November. After recovering, Rossi was actually set to return to Zurich’s lineup after Thanksgiving, but then multiple players on Zurich tested positive for the virus and the team was put into quarantine.

Because of the delay to the start of the NHL season, the Wild let Rossi have the honor of captaining his native Austria in the world junior championships. Rossi played in the tournament, then flew to Minnesota, excited for training camp.

Sources say Rossi was “exhausted” throughout the tournament, but he never knew anything was wrong with him until Wild doctors wouldn’t clear him to begin training camp after undergoing a physical.

As part of the NHL COVID-19 protocols, all players that have tested positive for COVID-19 must undergo a cardiac screening and bloodwork. It’s unclear if Zurich or Team Austria followed similar protocols, but regardless, the Wild aren’t disclosing the nature of Rossi’s complications.

With 39 goals and 120 points in 56 games last season for the Ottawa 67’s, Rossi became the first European to lead the OHL in scoring and the first European to lead the three-league CHL in scoring since Alex Radulov (152 points) in 2005-06.

Rossi led the OHL with 81 assists and a plus-69, and was the second European import in OHL history to be named MVP. His 2.14 points per game ranked second in the CHL behind No. 1 overall pick, New York Rangers rookie Alexis Lafreniere (2.15), who played in the Quebec League for Rimouski.

Even though the Wild are confident Rossi’s health situation isn’t career-threatening, there could be real implications for his development with all this lost time.

By September, other than four games played at the World Junior Championships and one game for the ZSC Lions, Rossi will have not played consistent hockey in 18 months since the OHL season ended due to the pandemic last March.

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ORIGINAL: Jeff Jesser

Not even going to comment much about last nights loss. Tough to judge them right now as it's basically 1/2 Iowa and 1/2 Wild but the Avs are also decimated at this point.

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ORIGINAL: Jeff Jesser

At least we got to bring up the enforcer we've been waiting to see in Kyle Rau.

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ORIGINAL: stfrank

A snippet from the Strib:
DENVER – Five more Wild players have been placed in the NHL's COVID protocols, and the team's games will be postponed through at least Tuesday.

That means Thursday's game at Colorado, a weekend series at Xcel Energy Center against Arizona, and Tuesday's home game with St. Louis will not be played as scheduled.

Nick Bjugstad, Nick Bonino, Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson and Jared Spurgeon joined Marcus Foligno on the NHL's list of players unavailable due to COVID protocols when the league provided an update Wednesday evening.

A COVID protocols absence can be the result of several factors including a positive test, unconfirmed positive test and contact tracing. While in the protocols, players can't practice, play or travel with the team.

Until further notice, the Wild's facilities are closed, and the NHL is reviewing and revising the team's remaining schedule.

A source said the Wild will fly back to Minnesota on Thursday, with the players on the NHL's list traveling separately.

And the strange year that was 2020 is looking to be followed up by 2021......

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ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

Bad News:

Michael Russo
@RussoHockey
·
1m
Guerin said there are players that are symptomatic (achiness, loss of sense of taste and smell).

He says COVID-19 is creeping through the team one by one and he fully expects more positives to pop up


Michael Russo
@RussoHockey
·
3m
#mnwild have a 4:30 conference call w the NHL today to discuss future. Bill Guerin made clear he thinks the team needs more time off and to postpone more games. Transaction-wise with the cap would be "insane," he said.

9 players, 1 Wild staff member has tested positive, he says

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

Mikko Koivu finally does what he should have done three years ago and retires.

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

Calen Addison will make his debut for the Wild tomorrow.

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ORIGINAL: stfrank

After reading Russo's comments, it sounds like the Covid boys are having some after-effects physically.
Lack of energy and tiring quickly are not things normally said of EK, but it was after last night's game.

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ORIGINAL: stfrank

Again, I only caught the first period, but at least they looked better and scored a couple of goals.
Nice to see they hung on for the win and badly needed points.