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As if the Minnesota Wild’s list of missing players could get any longer—well it has. Just a couple hours before puck drop against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, the team announced that Marcus Foligno has been placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list.
In addition to Foligno missing Sunday’s contest, the Wild will be without Kevin Fiala—serving his second of a three-game suspension—Marcus Johansson, and defenseman Matt Dumba, both suffering from injuries sustained during Saturday’s game.
#mnwild veteran Marcus Foligno is on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. First Wild player to be added in-season.
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 31, 2021
He’ll miss tonight’s game vs. #avs, meaning depleted Wild without Fiala, Dumba, Foligno and Johansson; I believe Mayhew, Rau, Johnson, Hunt all playing tonight
As Michael Russo mentions, the Wild had to recall forwards Kyle Rau, Luke Johnson and Gerald Mayhew from the taxi squad and Brad Hunt will also make another appearance on the blue line. It’s not confirmed, but I imagine that this means one of Ian Cole or Carson Soucy will be playing alongside Jonas Brodin, while the other and Hunt round out the group of defenseman that is going to face the immense forward depth the Avalanche have to offer.
Foligno is the first Wild player on the active roster to be placed on this protocol list, but currently-injured goaltender Alex Stalock had his name scribbled on the list to start the season—he was not with the team at that point though.
After the 5-1 beating the Avalanche gave to the Wild on Saturday—frankly it could have been a lot worse—we might be in for a larger gap in the scoreline.