Brock Faber has a fractured skull and has already undergone surgery, Wild GM Bill Guerin said Tuesday, with no timetable for his return.
The injury happened in Friday's 2-1 preseason loss to Dallas, when a puck deflected off the stick of Stars forward Sam Steel and caught him on the left side of the head.
Faber skated back to the bench on his own and kept playing the rest of the second period. He was held out of the third.
He finished that night with 14:27 of ice time.
Michael Russo of The Athletic broke the news, and the reaction across the league was immediate.
One fan called it "pretty terrifying," while another wrote that it "could have been life-changing."
So how do the Wild replace a defenseman like that?
-
Brock Faber faces uncertain recovery after emergency surgery
They don't, at least not cleanly. HockeyFeed described him as the team's top-pair defenseman and a cornerstone player.
The 24-year-old was part of the American team that won Olympic gold in Milan in February.
The pressure on Quinn Hughes just went up. The Norris Trophy winner is entering the final year of his contract, and Elliotte Friedman expects any extension to be short term.
Hughes carries a $7,850,000 cap hit, and he had 15 points in 11 playoff games for Minnesota last spring.
The Wild also pay Kirill Kaprizov $17,000,000, the second-biggest cap hit in the league.
Hockey can wait on this one. Guerin was right not to put a timeline on it, and nobody should be in a hurry to see Faber back before he's fully healthy.
It's like a carpenter finding out the beam he's been leaning on was cracked the whole time. You stop building until you know it's safe.
The Wild finished the preseason 1-2-1 and open Thursday in Nashville.
Glen Gulutzan's Stars, who went 4-0-0 in exhibition play, open October 2 at home against St. Louis.
No timetable means the Wild have to plan for the long haul. Guerin's next move on the blue line might come sooner than anyone expected.
Should the Wild trade for a defenseman to cover for Brock Faber?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Nobody saw this Connor Hellebuyck trade twist coming
