Amid the Hughes hype, Matt Kiersted makes a quiet Wild debut

The Minnesota Wild had a new defenseman make his debut in red and green last weekend and hardly anyone noticed Seriously Amid all of the much-deserved hype about Quinn Hughes coming to Minnesota and taking his place on the Wild blue line the local NHL club also welcomed Matt Kiersted back to his home state for his first contest on the rink where every local kid dreams of playing There was a lot going on but it was pretty cool Kiersted announced on Tuesday reflecting on his time as a youth hockey participant in Elk River Being from Minnesota I grew up watching the Wild To in fact get into a competition to get to play for them in the regular season is pretty special With regular defensemen Jonas Brodin Jake Middleton and now Zach Bogosian all missing due to injury and Zeev Buium now playing for Vancouver Kiersted was back on the ice at Grand Casino Arena on Tuesday versus the Capitals While he never made it to St Paul on a state tournament organization he had played at the Wild s home rink as a freshman at North Dakota where he played four years Saturday s battle versus Ottawa was certainly his th on a NHL roster having played the previous five seasons in the Florida Panthers organization although he was not on their roster for either of the association s runs to the Stanley Cup in or Over the summer he signed a two-year deal with the Wild worth million and after being sent down during training camp he notched three assists in games with the Iowa Wild His call-up to Minnesota was a last minute transaction but Kiersted still had around friends and family at the rink on Saturday to see his on-ice homecoming Be became the th Minnesota-born athlete to appear in a regular season event for the Wild in their -year history He heard from several of his former Fighting Hawks teammates on his way to St Paul for the debut Everyone s excited They were congratulating me on the recall and hoping I can get into a competition Kiersted stated He logged more than minutes versus the Senators getting shifts I m just doing anything I can to help the company win He admitted that when he got the chance to sign with Minnesota and play closer to home it was an easy choice to make Injury update Wild coach John Hynes usually spends seconds or so on gamedays updating the media about the current state of the gang s injured players and when they might return On Tuesday morning the squad s robustness record took a full minute and a half and the coach joked that he s starting to lose track amid all of the injuries He had good news with Marcus Foligno returning after missing the previous nine contests with a lower body injury Then came the bad news Forward Marcus Johansson is day-to-day with a lower body injury Defenseman Zach Bogosian is day-to-day with a lower body injury Defenseman Jonas Brodin is day-to-day with an upper body injury Defenseman Jake Middleton had testing done on Tuesday but remains day-to-day with an upper body injury Forward Mats Zuccarello has begun skating but remains out day-to-day with an upper body injury Forward Vinnie Hinostroza who has missed the past dozen games with a lower body injury has begun skating and is day-to-day The Wild came into Tuesday s meeting with the Capitals having missed man-games to injury so far And that number grew as soon as the puck was dropped Related Articles Quinn Hughes extremely open-minded about a Wild extension Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame coming to Inver Grove Heights Quinn Hughes pledges even better days ahead after dazzling debut with Wild All smiles as Wild rout Boston in Quinn Hughes debut Late-game magic lifts Wild past Senators