{"id":208844,"date":"2025-09-25T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/208844\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:44:22","slug":"zuccarello-flames-power-play-perfetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/208844\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuccarello, Flames Power Play, Perfetti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran forward Mats Zuccarello<\/a> has begun Minnesota Wild training camp limited to light activity due to an injury, the full nature of which currently remains undisclosed. The Athletic\u2019s Michael Russo reported today<\/a> that Zuccarello has an appointment on Monday that will \u201cdetermine surgery vs no surgery,\u201d according to Wild head coach John Hynes. Zuccarello is already slated to miss the start of the regular season per prior reporting from Russo, but depending on the medical opinion received tomorrow, the absence could conceivably extend quite a bit.<\/p>\n

The loss of Zuccarello, 38, would be a major one for a Wild team entering a potentially franchise-altering regular season. Franchise face Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> is a pending UFA and while the club has been vocal in its willingness to do pretty much anything in order to secure Kaprizov\u2019s signature on an extension, Kaprizov has thus far appeared hesitant to commit the future of his playing prime to Minnesota. The best thing the Wild can do to convince Kaprizov is likely to win as much, and as early, as possible \u2013 something that will be made more difficult by any extended Zuccarello absence. Zuccarello scored 19 goals and 54 points in 69 games last season, and in his absence his lineup spot has been filled by 2022 first-rounder Liam Ohgren<\/a>, who has reportedly had an impressive start to camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some other notes from across the NHL:<\/p>\n

TSN\u2019s Salim Nadim Valji<\/a> reported today that Calgary Flames 2024 first-round pick Matvei Gridin<\/a> is currently taking reps on the club\u2019s top power play unit, alongside MacKenzie Weegar<\/a>, Connor Zary<\/a>, Nazem Kadri<\/a>, and Matt Coronato<\/a>. While it\u2019s unlikely that Gridin ultimately settles into that role in the immediate term, it does shed some light on how the organization might view Gridin\u2019s long-term future. The 19-year-old Russian winger is a skilled offensive creator who scored 36 goals and 79 points in 56 games for the QMJHL\u2019s Shawinigan Cataractes last season. He could end up a long-term power play weapon for the Flames if he can continue his development in 2025-26.
\nWith Nikolaj Ehlers<\/a>\u2019 offseason departure, the Winnipeg Jets lost 24 goals and 63 points of production to the Carolina Hurricanes. One of the areas where Ehlers was particularly lethal was on the man advantage, and with his departure, a spot on the Jets\u2019 top unit has opened up. The Athletic\u2019s Murat Ates reports from Winnipeg training camp that young forward Cole Perfetti<\/a> is \u201cfirst in line\u201d to replace Ehlers on the Jets\u2019 top unit. Perfetti filled in for Ehlers on that unit when Ehlers was injured last season, so he should be able to hit the ground running. It\u2019s a big year for Perfetti, who scored a career-high 50 points last season. He\u2019s a pending restricted free agent and likely due for a notable raise from the $3.25MM cap hit he\u2019s playing out his current deal on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran forward Mats Zuccarello has begun Minnesota Wild training camp limited to light activity due to an injury,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,2000,896,5,402,3707,38,4,404,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-208844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-cole-perfetti","12":"tag-flames","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-injury","15":"tag-mats-zuccarello","16":"tag-minnesota-wild","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-snapshots","19":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115264530885318457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}