ST. PAUL, Minn. —
Three Minnesota Wild players have undergone minor surgeries since the end of
the season.
Leading scorer Dany Heatley had arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday. As expected,
goaltender Niklas Backstrom had ankle surgery last week. Devin Setoguchi also
underwent a minor procedure on his ankle last week. None of the three is
expected to miss any work later this offseason.
In his first season in Minnesota after being acquired last summer from the San
Jose Sharks, Heatley played in all 82 games and scored a team-high 24 goals and
added 29 assists. It was Heatley's second consecutive season with less than 30
goals after topping the mark in six of the previous seven seasons. In his
season-ending news conference, Wild head coach Mike Yeo said it was fair to
call Heatley the team's MVP and noted the drop in production partly had to do
with center Mikko Koivu missing 27 games.
"As far as Heater goes, you hear a lot of things and you read a lot of
things, but you don't know until you get a chance to work with a guy and
develop that kind of relationship," Yeo said. "I can sit here and go
on for an awful long time about the pleasure that I had working with Dany
Heatley. The guy is just a hockey player. He just shows up and competes day
after day. He pays a price. He plays physical. He plays hard. He goes to the
hard areas.
"His goal production is probably not where he wanted it to be at the end
of the year, but he lost his centerman; he lost guys that he'd be out on the
ice with in power-play situations. You know, guys like that need people to get
them the puck, and he never once complained. Every day he came to the rink and
kept trying to push the group and lead the group."
Backstrom started 45 of the 46 games he played in and finished with a 19-18-7
record, with a 2.43 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. It was
the first time in Backstrom's career that he finished with fewer than 20
wins, but he missed 12 games due to injury. His goals-against average and save
percentage fell right in line with his career marks (2.42 and .918).
Setoguchi, also acquired last offseason from the Sharks, finished with 19 goals
and 17 assists while playing in 69 games. The No. 8 overall pick in the
2005 draft came to the Wild with a streak of three conseuctive 20-goal seasons.
The Wild had a bevy of players lose the equivalent of 393 games to injury. Only
Heatley, Darroll Powe and Kyle Brodziak played in every game this season.
Minnesota used 47 different players, which was a franchise record.
Follow Brian Hall on
Twitter.
