Wild activate Mats Zuccarello from Injured Reserve

The Minnesota Wild announced on Friday that forward Mats Zuccarello has been activated from Injured Reserve. He is expected to play on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Zuccarello, 36, has been out since Dec. 16 with an upper-body injury. At the time, Wild head coach John Hynes said Zuccarello was “dealing with a lingering issue.”

Through 2023-24, Zuccarello has six goals and 22 assists for 28 points, which led the Wild in points at the time of his injury. Now in his fifth season with Minnesota, Zuccarello has 78 goals, 168 assists and 246 points in 283 games.

He is in the last year of a five-year, $30 million contract signed in 2019. He also signed a two-year, $8.25 million contract extension in September, which will keep him with the Wild through the 2025-26 season.

Through 14 NHL seasons, Zuccarello has 192 goals and 409 assists for 601 points in 794 career games with the Wild, New York Rangers and Dallas Stars.

It’s been an up-and-down season for a Wild team that was hoping to improve on its 2022-23 record of 46–25–11 and 103 points, only to finish with a first-round exit. They’re 16-17-4 with 36 points, seventh in the Western Conference’s Central Division.

Forward Kirill Kaprizov leads the team in scoring with 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points in 34 games. Brock Faber, whom the Wild acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings in June 2022, leads the defensive core in scoring with 16 points in 37 games.

Going into Friday night, they were five points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second Wild Card spot in the West. After their road game on Saturday against the Blue Jackets, the Wild head home to host the Dallas Stars on Monday night.