The Wild's 23-man roster is set. It's actually at 22.
This morning, the Wild released goalie Ilya Bryzgalov from his pro tryout, placed Cody Almond and Stephane Veilleux on waivers and placed Justin Fontaine on injured reserve.
Fontaine is practicing though and close to a return.
What this means: Jason Zucker, Stu Bickel, Matt Dumba, Christian Folin and Nate Prosser have made the opening-night roster.
Don't close the door on Bryzgalov yet. GM Chuck Fletcher is expected to talk to his agent, Ritch Winter, later this morning about a two-way contract or AHL deal. It'll be up to Bryzgalov if he wants to accept.
Today was the waiver deadline to create space for tomorrow's 4 p.m. roster deadline. By placing two guys on waivers, the Wild can technically sign Bryzgalov to a two-way deal and fit him on the roster before he would have to go on waivers. It also means no roster move once Fontaine is ready to play, which is soon.
My guess is Fontaine goes to the Vanek-Koivu line once he's ready.
Also, Almond has an out in his contract where if he clears waivers, he can return to his Swiss team in Geneva rather than reporting to Iowa. Almond tells me he has no idea what he'll do yet, that he wants to put himself in the best situation to establish himself as an NHL player and he'll see what the next 24 hours brings.
Lines in today's practice:
Parise-Granlund-Pominville
Cooke-Koivu-Vanek
Zucker-Coyle-Niederreiter
Brodziak-Haula-Bickel
D pairs:
Suter-Brodin
Scandella-Spurgeon
Dumba-Folin
Ballard-Prosser (extras)
Goalies
Backstrom
Kuemper
