Wilderness Walk: NHL introduces new safety measures

That’s Wild

• Everything is miserable for the Minnesota Wild. As if a dozen players on the NHL’s COVID protocol list wasn’t enough, key prospect Marat Khusnutdinov suffered a shoulder injury on international duty and will be out for months. [Hockey Wilderness]
• At least it looks like the Wild will be back practicing today—those that aren’t in quarantine and on the aforementioned league list. [Hockey Wilderness]
• With that half roster going to take some practices, the Wild reassigned defensive prospect Calen Addison to the taxi squad, meaning that he will be able to participate in those NHL practices. With both Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon nursing various injuries, the right-handed blueliner might get a shot earlier than expected. [Hockey Wilderness]
• The Wild appear to be right where you expected them to be in these power rankings. [The Athletic]

Off the trail...

• With a handful of teams not playing due to outbreaks and several postponements, the NHL upped their safety restrictions to where they should have been in the first place. These changes will involve less travelling within home cities, higher-grade masks, rapid testing on gamedays, and more. [NHL PR]
• Willie O’Ree was supposed to get his number retired by the Boston Bruins this season, but they have moved the ceremony to 2022 for fans to be in attendance. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]
• The WHL’s Red Deer Rebels will host their players not with billet families this season, but will have the players sleep in unused rooms around the arena. [NBC Sports]
• The Dallas Stars got themselves needlessly involved in an issue with the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA due to no anthem being played during their games. The Stars just wanted to get noticed. [Yahoo Sports]