The Minnesota Wild are set to be without forward Marcus Johansson for the foreseeable future as he recovers from a concussion suffered in Wednesday's loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
The Wild announced Thursday that they have placed Johansson on injured reserve and will miss at least a week. The team also placed star Kirill Kaprizov on long-term injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 23 and recalled forward Brendan Gaunce and Liam Öhgren from AHL Iowa.
The 34-year-old Johansson left the 5-3 loss to Edmonton late in the second period after being caught in the head by a controversial elbow from Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
"It's horse----," Minnesota defenceman Jake Middleton said of the play after the game, per The Athletic's Michael Russo. "I don't care if it's the best player in the world."
The elbow also drew the ire of Minnesota head coach John Hynes post-game.
Johansson, playing in his 15th NHL season, has five goals and 11 assists in 44 games for the 27-14-4 Wild.
While the Wild haven't officially announced the move to place Johansson on injured reserve, they did reactive forward Jakub Lauko from IR and reassigned forwarded Ben Jones and Devin Shore to AHL Iowa earlier in the day.
Russo also reported that Kaprizov skated again Thursday, but Minnesota needed to place a player on long-term injured reserve so it could exceed the cap and recall two forwards in light of Johansson's injury.
Kaprizov has been out since a win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 23 with a lower-body injury. The 27-year-old had 23 goals and 50 points in 34 games before the ailment.
Minnesota doesn't play again until Saturday when they travel to Nashville to take on the Predators.
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