Wild trim roster to 27 ahead of final preseason game Friday night
The Wild need to get below the 23-man active roster limit for next Thursday's season opener in Nashville.
The Minnesota Wild have further trimmed their roster to 27 players ahead of their final preseason game on Friday night. The team announced on Thursday that they had cut down from 43 to 27 players in one day. Minnesota still has one more preseason game before its regular-season opener against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. To comply with NFL roster limits, the Wild must reduce their active roster to 23 players before the season starts.
The roster reductions included waiving eight players - defensemen Matt Kiersted, Carson Lambos, and Roman Schmidt, forwards Caedan Bankier, Dylan Gambrell, Justin Kirkland, Tyler Pitlick, and Mason Shaw. If those players clear waivers, they will be assigned to the Wild's American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. The team also outright assigned five more players - defensemen Ben Dexheimer and Viking Gustafsson Nyberg, forwards Jagger Joshua, Hunter Haight, Riley Heidt, Rasmus Kumpulainen, and Rieger Lorez - to Iowa as well.
Only two top prospects remain on the Wild's roster ahead of Friday night's final preseason game. Forward Charlie Stramel, a 21-year-old first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, and defenseman David Špaček, a 23-year-old fifth-round selection in the 2022 draft, have a final chance to make an impression on the roster for the season opener. Stramel tallied 91 points in four college seasons, while Špaček posted 79 points in three seasons with Iowa's AHL team.
The Wild will face the Dallas Stars at Grand Casino Arena for their preseason finale on Friday night, with tip-off at 7 p.m. CT. Opening night against Nashville is scheduled for Thursday at the same venue.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
