Minnesota fell back on depth, defense and Filip Gustavsson’s goaltending and improved its NHL-best road record.

The Wild are bringing Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon back from injuries as the NHL season reaches the home stretch.

The Wild had their best player back for the first time in a month, but they didn’t play like it. Kirill Kaprizov’s return was spoiled by a 4-0 shellacking from Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center that continued the Wild’s woes at home.

And the clearest signal that Kaprizov and Spurgeon would be back is that the Wild reassigned defenseman David Jiricek two hours after practice. If you did the salary cap math, it really was the only option to get below the cap ceiling once Kaprizov is activated from LTIR.

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes said he is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will return to the lineup against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.

David’s come in and I think he’s really shown some of his very good attributes,” John Hynes said, with a nod to Jiricek’s imposing 6-foot-3 frame. “You can’t teach size.”

Wild star Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon were activated from injured reserve Thursday and played in the team's 4-0 loss to Utah.

The Minnesota Wild announced on Thursday that the team has activated forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon from Injured Reserve. Both will play in the game tonight versus the Utah Hockey Club.

Coach John Hynes, per Michael Russo of The Athletic, told reporters he is " cautiously optimistic " that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain/defenceman Jared Spurgeon will return from injury Thursday against the Utah Hockey Club.