Wild’s Zach Parise out at least 2 games with back injury

Wild forward Zach Parise. (Stacy Bengs/AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild will start the regular season without veteran left wing Zach Parise, who has been slowed by a back injury.

General manager Chuck Fletcher said after practice Monday that Parise would not travel to games at Detroit on Thursday and at Carolina on Saturday. Fletcher said Parise was "having a hard time getting over the hump." The 33-year-old played in no preseason games. The goal is for Parise to practice with the team next week.

The Wild assigned centre Luke Kunin to their AHL affiliate Monday and placed defenceman Ryan Murphy on waivers with the intent to assign him to Iowa, reducing their training-camp roster to 22 players. That doesn’t include veteran left wing Daniel Winnik, who’s on a tryout contract.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.