Marco Rossi is heading back to Austria, due to COVID-19 complications

We haven’t seen anything from the ninth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft and it looks like we may be waiting a little longer still.

As reported by Michael Russo of The Athletic, Minnesota Wild top prospect Marco Rossi is headed back to Austria for six weeks, after which he will return to Minnesota.

We aren’t sure what to make of this development. Following Rossi’s performance with the his national team at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Edmonton, he was placed on IR with ever-obscure “upper-body injury”.

The Wild have kept his status very close to their chest, so this is the first development we’ve had since the beginning of the season. We’re in no position to guess on the severity of his injury, so we will just keep it as that. Here’s hoping that the Wild’s best center prospect recovers quickly and fully.

While other teams like the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers experience the impact of their 2020 first-rounders stepping into the NHL, the Wild will have to wait a little bit longer. We waited five years for Kirill Kaprizov, so we can wait a few months for Rossi.

After the youngster put up 120 points through 56 games for the Ottawa 67s of the OHL, the 5-foot-9 center was able to travel to Switzerland and play one single game for the ZSC Lions of the National League, leading to a league-wide outbreak and his eventual fruitless appearance at the 2021 World Junior Championship.

It’s been a tough few months for this dude.

Update, Jan. 30:

During the second intermission of the Wild’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, the team released an update on Rossi’s situation. His reported upper-body injury is due to complications from his prior COVID-19 diagnosis while he was playing in Switzerland for Zurich.

There is no timetable for his return to action, but according to Michael Russo, he will be coming back to Minnesota in March. All you can hope for is a return to full health, no matter how long it takes for the teenager—what a terrible thing to go through.