The future is now for the Minnesota Wild as top prospects Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy have been called up from the American Hockey League and are expected to make their NHL debuts Thursday night when the Wild face the Boston Bruins.
The arrival of Boldy and Rossi could serve as a spark for a Wild team that has lost four in a row and has only played one game – the 6-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues in the New Year’s Day Winter Classic at Target Field – and has had five games postponed because of COVID-19.
Boldy has 10 goals and 28 points in 24 AHL games with the Iowa Wild. Rossi, who missed most of the past year after being diagnosed with myocarditis following a battle with COVID-19, leads the Iowa Wild with 23 points (seven goals) in 21 games.
Boldy and Rossi were playing on a line together in the AHL, but that apparently won’t be the case at the NHL level. According to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, they phenoms were on separate lines during Tuesday morning’s practice.
#mnwild lines
Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Foligno-Rossi-Fiala
Boldy-Gaudreau-Duhaime
Dewer/Pitlick/Rask-Sturm/BjugstadBrodin-Dumba
Merrill-Goligoski
Kulikov-Benn
Mermis-Addison— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 4, 2022
The Wild selected Boldy with the 12th pick in the 2019 draft and they got Rossi with the ninth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
