The Wild had their best player back for the first time in a month, but they didn’t play like it. Kirill Kaprizov’s return was spoiled by a 4-0 shellacking from Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center that continued the Wild’s woes at home.

The Minnesota Wild will have to temporarily find a way to survive without star forward Kirill Kaprizov amid the latest news.

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.

Despite Thursday’s tough outcome, Wild players were thrilled to have their captain and star forward back in the lineup.

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.”

Superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov and veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon returned to practice on Wednesday. Head coach John Hynes told reporters he's "cautiously optimistic" that both will play in their upcoming game against the Utah Hockey Club at Xcel Energy Center.

The Minnesota Wild announced on Thursday that the team has activated forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon from Injured Reserve. Both will play in the game tonight versus the Utah Hockey Club.

Coach John Hynes, per Michael Russo of The Athletic, told reporters he is " cautiously optimistic " that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain/defenceman Jared Spurgeon will return from injury Thursday against the Utah Hockey Club.

The Minnesota Wild survived without Kirill Kaprizov the first time, and they can do it again. That’s the message they sent Wednesday, when they upended the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 at Scotiabank Arena to kick off Kaprizov’s second hiatus with their most convincing victory in weeks.

The Minnesota Wild took down the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, 3-1.

That's Wild The Minnesota Wild started a very important road trip north of the border Wednesday night by visiting the Maple Leafs in Toronto. The Wild, who were 2-2-0 in their previous four games, have been just holding steady as they have suffered a dangerous injury bug.