The Minnesota Wild are getting a perfect storm of returns for Thursday evening against the Utah Hockey Club as both star forward Kirill Kaprizov and defenseman Jared Spurgeon have been activated from IR.

And the clearest signal that Kaprizov and Spurgeon would be back is that the Wild reassigned defenseman David Jiricek two hours after practice. If you did the salary cap math, it really was the only option to get below the cap ceiling once Kaprizov is activated from LTIR.

The Minnesota Wild activated star Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon from injured reserve before their game against Utah on Thursday, putting two integral players back in the lineup. Kaprizov last played on Dec.

The Wild are bringing Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon back from injuries as the NHL season reaches the home stretch.

David’s come in and I think he’s really shown some of his very good attributes,” John Hynes said, with a nod to Jiricek’s imposing 6-foot-3 frame. “You can’t teach size.”

The Wild activated star Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon from injured reserve before their game against Utah on Thursday, putting two integral players back in the lineup.

ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and defenseman Jared Spurgeon will be in the lineup on Thursday.

As per Michael Russo, the Minnesota Wild are set to activate Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon from the injured reserve and long-term injured reserve.

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes said he is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will return to the lineup against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.

Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (lower body) will re-enter the lineup on Thursday against the Utah Hockey Club. He has been out for nine games due to a lower-body injury. The Wild captain will work with Declan Chisholm on the second defensive pairing.

It is safe to say the Wild are excited to get Spurgeon back into the lineup and start to get healthy again. Faber has been back in the lineup the last couple of games and Kaprizov

Spurgeon missed the Wild's last nine games due to his lower-body issue but looks good to go again. In order to activate Spurgeon and Kirill Kaprizov (lower body) off injured reserve, the team needed to send David Jiricek back to the minors.