Wild Get Brutal News on Captain Jared Spurgeon

A tough break break for the Minnesota Wild who have announced that captain and top defenceman Jared Spurgeon will miss the rest of the season due to hip and back surgery.

#mnwild captain Jared Spurgeon is having season-ending hip and back surgery. He’s expected to be ready by next season. With Spurgeon on LTIR, Wild can exceed the cap by roughly his $7.575M AAV (minus callups). I anticipate Bill Guerin is now in the market for a pending UFA dman

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 18, 2024

He'll have left hip surgery on Feb. 6th, and back surgery about four weeks after that. He is expected to be ready for the 2024-25 season. 

The 14-year veteran defenseman has been out of the lineup since Jan. 2, and has only managed to play 16 games overall this season. He recorded five assists while averaging 23:20 of ice time per game, his highest total in four years.

In general, it’s been a tough season for Spurgeon, as he began the year missing the entire first month due to a shoulder injury suffered at the end of training camp.

General manager Bill Guerin said the upcoming surgeries are not the result of one single injury, but of wear and tear on the 34-year-old.

With Spurgeon now on LTIR, the Wild are able to exceed the salary cap by the $7.575 million on his cap hit. They are expected to go out and get a defenseman to try to eat up some of those massive minutes they’ve lost, likely an impending unrestricted free agent, so that they won’t be tied to the player past this season, and someone they could perhaps even flip at the trade deadline if they’ve determined over the next six weeks that they’ll be sellers.

This news adds injury to insult for the Wild, who have been reeling of late, losers of five of their last seven games, and now sitting at 18-20-5 on the season, in seventh place in the Central Division.

Photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports