Opening-day rosters are due Tuesday, and the Wild worked to reach the 23-man limit Monday by placing winger J.T. Brown on waivers and assigning defenseman Louie Belpedio to the American Hockey League.

If Brown clears, he also will be assigned to Iowa.

These moves leave the Wild with 24 players on its roster, but it might not need to make any more cuts. Forward Mason Shaw, who's recovering from knee surgery, will be designated as an injured nonroster player, and defenseman Greg Pateryn (lower-body injury) could be shifted to injured reserve, dropping the roster to 22.

With Pateryn out, Belpedio and Carson Soucy had been competing for what has looked like one spot on the blue line — a job that Soucy appears to have won, giving the Wild seven available defensemen.

Although Belpedio is a right shot like Pateryn, Soucy's physicality (6-5, 211 pounds) might have been an appealing trait for a Wild defense corps that has only one healthy player other than Soucy listed over 6-1 (Nick Seeler is 6-2).

After a day off Monday, the team is back to practice Tuesday.

SARAH McLELLAN