Kaprizov leaves Wild preseason game with potential injury [Update: He’s fine]

Well, this might suck.

During the Minnesota Wild’s first preseason game, against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday afternoon, Kirill Kaprizov cut his game short after potentially suffering an ankle injury.

The game was not being broadcasted, so we don’t have any video of the event, but according to the media personnel that were in attendance at the Xcel Energy Center for the exhibition matinee, Kaprizov was struck with a shot off the stick of Frederick Gaudreau, and struggled to get off the ice.

The winger phenom talked about the injury with the Wild’s head athletic trainer John Worley on the bench, thought he was good enough to test it out and got on the ice for his very next shift. But shortly after, Kaprizov was nowhere to be seen and left the game in the third period.

Now, it was late enough in the game that the Minnesota coaching staff would rather not risk their best player further injuring something that was bothering him, for a dang preseason game. The Wild went on to win 3-2 in overtime via a Ryan Hartman game-winner.

Expect head coach Dean Evason to provide an update after the game.

UPDATE:

Well, after the game Evason spoke with the media and made sure everyone knew that Kaprizov was actually okay and it was just a precautionary measure, given that it was the first preseason game.

Thank goodness!