The slash that Minnesota forward Dany Heatley took on Wednesday has proven to be costly.
Heatley, who was whacked by former Sharks teammate Marc-Edouard Vlasic (Vlasic was fined just over $8k for the incident), will be out for at least the next couple of weeks, according to Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.
Prior to getting hurt, the 32-year-old forward had appeared in 36 of Minnesota’s 37 games this year, scoring 21 points while sitting third on the team in goals (11). Heatley also averaged 18:32 TOI per game.
“He adds a lot to our group — power play, goal scoring, big body. We’ve got to make up for that, somebody’s going to have to step up, somebody’s going to have to elevate their game,” Wild head coach Mike Yeo told Mike Russo of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. “That’s two key guys that we lost the last couple games.”
The other guy, of course, is center Matt Cullen, who suffered a lower-body injury on Monday and has missed the last two games.
Russo said the original plan was for Cullen to rejoin the Wild this Sunday for a game against Columbus, but that plan is now doubtful as Cullen’s taking longer to recover than originally expected.
In a related move, the Wild called up rookie Mikael Granlund from AHL Houston. Granlund has been in the American League since mid-March after his solid start to the NHL campaign fizzled.