PITTSBURGH — When two-time Stanley Cup champion Nico Sturm signed a two-year deal as a free agent July 1 to return to the team his NHL career started with in 2019, he never could have envisioned his first time slipping on that Minnesota Wild sweater again would be during a Nov. 21 pregame warmup in Pittsburgh and not on opening night.

But the now-NHL veteran and 30-year-old center aggravated an old back injury on the first day of training camp and ultimately underwent a microdiscectomy.

“I was wearing my heart rate strap (during warmups),” Sturm said during the second intermission of Friday’s 5-0 Wild win against the Penguins. “The (trainers) said I had a load for a full period out there. It was very exciting just to put the jersey back on, and I always like to say, as you play a lot more games in the league, the second I think you do that and it doesn’t feel special anymore is when you probably know that it’s time to hang them up. And I think I’m a long, long ways from that.”

Sturm’s eighth NHL season could officially kick off as soon as Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg against the Jets. It’s especially needed with the Wild inundated with injuries to centermen Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman, winger Vladimir Tarasenko and the latest being Vinnie Hinostroza, who sustained what’s anticipated to be a long-term injury Friday night.

But Sturm will get on the ice Saturday, and then a final determination will be made. If he plays, he’d likely center a line with Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin.

Sturm’s strengths are areas the Wild, despite being 8-1-1 in their last 10, could use.

He’s big. He’s a great skater. He’s a strong penalty killer. And since debuting in 2018-19 after being a standout at Clarkson and signing with Minnesota as a college free agent, Sturm’s 56.5 percent career faceoff winning percentage ranks eighth in the NHL for players who have taken at least 2,900 draws. Last season with San Jose and Florida, Sturm’s .588 faceoff winning percentage ranked fifth for centermen who took at least 422 faceoffs.

“You want help right away and especially the way we started the season,” Sturm said of the Wild’s 3-6-3 record in October. “I mean, things are looking a lot better now. … I get how it looks from the outside. I turned 30, it’s like, ‘Oh, he is getting older now. He’s having a back issue.’ I just turned 30 and I think I’m in a good shape, but it’s like the second you turn 30, people look at you like you’re 40 now.

“So it’s like, ‘No, I’m one of the best shaped guys in the league.’ So it’s like, for me, it was just something that needed to get fixed and obviously the timing sucked. You want to help the team, especially when it goes bad. It’s a lot easier to watch now, but when we struggled, the PK struggled, which was one of the things where I was supposed to help, and then there’s obviously a hole where you were supposed to plug in.”

Nico Sturm like old times pic.twitter.com/htlYUvMI26

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) September 20, 2025

Sturm said he felt great all offseason. He worked out like normal, was comfortable with the easy transition back to Minnesota and was excited to just focus on hockey and not uprooting his life. He lives in Minneapolis with his fiancée, Taylor Turnquist, the former three-sport star athlete from Spring Lake Park High School, two-time Clarkson University national champion and former Boston Pride and Minnesota Whitecaps defender. That meant unlike most free-agent signees, he didn’t have to look for a place to live.

“Just popped right into the house, went grocery shopping and you’re all set,” he said.

But then the injury recurred.

“It was just, I think, abuse from playing hockey over the years, and it just happened to be on that day and the first day of camp,” Sturm, who will represent Germany in the upcoming Olympics, said. “Hockey’s not a very healthy sport to play, and especially, I think for the back, it’s a very unnatural position. I’ve always had back problems pretty much since I was a teenager. And about two years ago was at a point where I had considered surgery before, but I hadn’t exhausted all the other options and been doing a lot of (physical therapy) and incorporating necessary exercise in my daily routine.

“In the last two years, I’ve had zero problems. So it kind of came out of nowhere for me. So that was kind of a surprise, but now it’s fixed and it shouldn’t be a problem. But the way the doctor said it should not have any impact long term.”

If Sturm debuts Sunday, he hopes he can help turn the Wild’s fortunes against the Jets. The Wild haven’t beaten their rival from the north in eight games, since March 8, 2023, being outscored 31-12 in those games.

But, he said, “I can’t wait to not only play the first game whenever that is … but also the first home game. I think that game’s going to be special. I have all those pictures on the wall back home. I look back at it, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Sturm hopes he can get up to speed quickly.

“There’s not a ton of practices, but it’s not like I’ve only played 10 games in the league,” said Sturm, who has played in 331 career games. “I know how to play the game, what it takes, and it’s tough to replicate game situations anyways, even in practice. So I probably assume that when I play, I’m probably not going to jump in and play 20 minutes first night. Maybe I’ll jump in and get some reduced minutes, but getting those faceoff situations, that kind of stuff.

“I think at some point when my body feels right and it’s ready to go, just jump in and just do it. I think there’s no point in trying to dip your toes in the water. Either you can go or you can’t go. And the first game or first two games, I might feel terrible because I haven’t had a game in, I don’t know, four months. So I am almost anticipating that the timing of things, it’s not going to feel great. I hope it does, but that’s just how it goes when you come back from injury.”

Sturm has played in four systems, so he thinks he’ll have no problem settling into the Wild’s penalty kill. And faceoffs have become his specialty after working with development coach and former NHL center Mike Ricci in San Jose and centers like Aleksander Barkov in Florida.

He studies video of opposing centermen to learn tendencies.

“I think my first year or two in the league, for example, nobody went to their forehand on their offside,” he said. “Now a lot of guys go to their forehand and some guys are great at it. Like (John) Tavares is elite at it, for example. Him and (Auston) Matthews both do it. Not a lot of guys did that to start. Now you see a lot of guys are also turning their stick over on their weak side.

“It’s changed a lot because I think teams have noticed probably how important it is to have possession in these first couple seconds, and especially when we have a power play or penalty kill, not chasing on the puck the first 20 seconds is really important. And then it can win you a game or two when it’s important, and I just think that every center has some insight into how they do things. And guys that have been around for a long time have taken a lot of draws and played against a lot of centers, so I always like to pick everybody’s brain a little bit.

“Everybody has different tendencies and what they think against righties, lefties, offside. It doesn’t mean that you have to change what you do. My basis will always be strength, that’s how I win most of my draws, but I feel you never stop learning this.”

“I like draws because it’s one-on-one, it’s competition. It’s the first battle of every shift and you try to win it.”