The Minnesota Wild announced Thursday that captain Jared Spurgeon will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season due to injury.
The 34-year-old is scheduled to have hip surgery in early February with a back surgery scheduled four weeks later, according to the team.
Spurgeon has only been able to take part in 16 games for the struggling Wild this season. He was averaging 23 minutes, 20 seconds of ice time in those games, the fourth most in a season during his 14-year career.
The defenseman missed the first month of the season after suffering a shoulder injury in Minnesota’s final exhibition game.
With Spurgeon on the long-term injured reserve list, it frees up the Wild to spend another $7.575m AAV of cap space. The Athletic’s Michael Russo said he expects Minnesota will be in the market for a defenseman.
#mnwild captain Jared Spurgeon is having season-ending hip and back surgery. He’s expected to be ready by next season. With Spurgeon on LTIR, Wild can exceed the cap by roughly his $7.575M AAV (minus callups). I anticipate Bill Guerin is now in the market for a pending UFA dman
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 18, 2024
Minnesota expects Spurgeon will be back in time for the start of the 2024-25 season.
