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Jonas Brodin will not wear Sweden's Tre Kronor jersey at the Olympics this month. Michael Campanella / Getty Images
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The decision, it turns out, really wasn’t much of one.
With Jonas Brodin dealing with a nagging lower-body injury, it put his dream of playing for Sweden in the Milan-Cortina Olympics in jeopardy. The veteran Minnesota Wild defenseman had to either have surgery last week, which would put him out six to eight weeks (missing the Olympics), or potentially miss the rest of the season with the Wild if he kept trying to play through the issue.
There were no “good” answers.
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Brodin chose surgery, which teammate Brock Faber called “unselfish.” Everyone knows the bucket-list experience Brodin, who won gold at the 2012 World Juniors six months after being drafted by the Wild and gold at the 2017 World Championship, will be missing out on.
“It simply sucks,” said fellow Swede, best bud and fellow Karlstad, Sweden native Joel Eriksson Ek.
“Awful,” countryman Marcus Johansson, a Karlstad resident, said. “It feels like he can’t catch a break right now.”
“He would have been a big part of their team,” coach John Hynes said, “but at the same time, I do totally respect his decision to realize we have a good team here and we have some aspirations of trying to have a really good season here. He’s made the decision that he’s going to put this first for the benefit of him to get healthy and get back playing with us.”
Back in 2014, Wild captain Mikko Koivu broke his ankle right before the Sochi Olympics and had to bow out for Finland. But at least he took part in two previous ones. This, at age 32, may have been Brodin’s only shot.
But Brodin’s dilemma brings up an issue that faces many potential Olympians leading up to leaving for Miilan. Whether you’re an Eriksson Ek or a Matt Boldy, a Matthew Tkachuk or a Brayden Point, let’s say you’re nursing an injury leading into the Olympics. You could play, sure. But what if it might be better for your NHL club to rest and rehab, compared to the risk of the Olympics affecting the injury — and your availability — further?
Remember, Brodin went to last year’s worlds with a shoulder injury and ultimately aggravated it, requiring surgery. Eriksson Ek returned from the 4 Nations last year with a broken bone in his leg.
“Well, at the end of the day, you work for your NHL club, right?” Tkachuk told us Jan. 23. “But, I mean, you’re going to sit here and tell me every kid’s dream isn’t to play for their country, especially being an American? I mean, everybody on our team’s favorite movie growing up was probably ‘Miracle,’ or one of their favorite movies. So we’ve been having this in our mind ever since we’ve been little kids.
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“We have the allegiance to our team, absolutely. That’s the team we work for and that’s everything, but if you have a chance and you make this Team USA, I mean, you’re going to do everything you can to make sure you’re giving your absolute best for your country. And it’s just an honor beyond words that can describe it.”
Tkachuk suffered a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia during last year’s 4 Nations tournament while playing for Team USA, and he didn’t know until right before the Stanley Cup playoffs whether he’d be available. The Panthers, of course, went on to win their second straight title. But that’s an example of what can happen.
The Wild have eight players going to Milan: Faber, Boldy and Quinn Hughes for the United States, Filip Gustavsson, Jesper Wallstedt, Johansson and Eriksson Ek for Sweden, and Nico Sturm for Germany. Minor-leaguers David Spacek (Czechia) and Samuel Hlavaj (Slovakia) will also be there.
“It’s a tough spot,” said Sturm, a two-time Cup champ and first-time Olympian. “It also depends on the type of injury you have. Teams are very understanding on what the tournament means to players in the overall sense of their career. It depends on what type of injury that guy has. If you have a bruised arm from a blocked shot, then it’s different having maybe a muscular issue or tear where it can get worse. I think (Wild president of hockey operations and GM Bill Guerin) has talked about it (in relation to) the trade deadline: ‘We’ll play the tournament and whatever happens, happens and you have to deal with it.’”
It’s an almost impossible situation for Guerin to be in. He’s a former three-time Olympian, so he gets it from a player perspective. How do you tell Hughes, who has been playing through an injury (there’s a reason he’s been dragging himself over the boards so comically since arriving), or a Boldy, who has been dealing with a nagging injury and recently missed time, or an Eriksson Ek, who recently returned from a lower-body injury, that it’s best to skip the Olympics due to the risk of worsening an existing condition?
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“For a lot of these guys it’s going to be their last opportunity to go over,” said Eddie Olczyk, a former NHLer, a TSN analyst and Olympian for Team USA in 1984. “I understand both sides. A majority of the guys going over probably all make anywhere between $5-$15/$16 million and are the most important assets to a franchise.
“To negotiate in the CBA, the players really wanted to do this. The commissioner has talked openly about players wanted this. My feel is that I’ve got to be healthy enough to play for my team. It’s a very, very fine line. It’s a really interesting dynamic. You’ve got to make sure you do right by the people who are paying your salary. We hope everyone has a great Olympics and everyone comes back healthy. But like they say, sometimes s— happens and it’s not good for the home clubs.”
The NHL’s trade freeze goes into effect Wednesday at 2 p.m. and lasts until 11 p.m. Feb. 22. Non-Olympians are off until 2 p.m. Feb. 17 with the Wild resuming practice Feb. 18.
In Milan, the men’s preliminary round starts Feb. 11 with qualification playoffs Feb. 17, the quarterfinals Feb. 18, the semifinals Feb. 20, the bronze medal game Feb. 21 and the gold medal game Feb. 22. The Wild resume their season Feb. 26 in Colorado.
Excluding Spacek and Hlavaj, the Wild’s eight NHL Olympians are tied for second-most in the NHL with the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils. The Tampa Bay Lightning have 10.
Hynes has gotten ahead of it and met with all eight to come up with a post-Olympics practice plan to “play this out.”
He asked each player, “If you don’t make the quarterfinals, if you make the quarterfinals, if you get to the semis, if you get to the bronze- or the gold-medal game,’ (tell him) their expectations and what they think they would need for off time if they didn’t make it all the way to the last weekend. If you make it all the way to the last weekend, obviously you’re not really going to get a break, but we’ll find opportunities to give them some breathers, whether it’s an extra off day here or there or just monitor how they’re feeling.”
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As we reported in last week’s insider, with both the Wild’s goalies in Milan, they’ll resume practice with one of their goalies being the retired Marc-Andre Fleury. And with Hynes in Milan as part of the U.S. coaching staff, the Wild’s assistants will run practice.
Asked if he’s worried about fatigue coming out of the break with so many Olympians, Hynes took the glass-half-full point of view.
“You can look at it two ways,” he said. “If you’re a team like us and you have a lot of guys going, what are the positives? You’ve got your guys playing high-stakes games in a high-stakes environment with other great players. It’s another learning experience for them and an opportunity to compete at a high level and stay ready versus going to Cancun or whatever for seven or 13 days and coming back and trying to get ramped up.”
Hynes, by the way, had a great line last week when told Gustavsson joked that he’s already mixing up his game in practice to throw off Boldy, Faber and Hughes in Milan: “Oh good, so we’re already in his head.”
Hynes coached the Nashville Predators from 2020-23. Mike Vrabel coached the Tennessee Titans from 2019-23.
Because the Preds and Titans are the only major men’s pro sports in Nashville, Hynes and Vrabel struck up a friendship. So Hynes — a Warwick, R.I. native and big-time Patriots fan after growing up 30 minutes from Foxboro Stadium — couldn’t be more excited for Vrabel’s trip to the Super Bowl as New England’s coach.
Hynes got to know Vrabel when he had the coach and former Titans GM John Robinson come over and talk to the Preds.
“They had a big suite at (Bridgestone Arena for both teams), so we’d go to concerts together and there was some hockey talk,” Hynes said. “Really good guy, like an awesome guy. I think he’s really smart. He was good to get to know, pick his brain a little bit. The speech he gave our team was awesome. I’ve really followed what Mike’s done in New England pretty thoroughly from the moment he took the job and just how his messaging and the culture and things like that have been different than (Bill) Belichick. Really rooting for him.”
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Last Monday, Sturm received his second Stanley Cup ring of his career from Guerin after Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito handed the gorgeous piece of jewelry off to the Wild GM before the Panthers and Wild played Jan. 24.
But it didn’t come without a scare.
Sturm was in the sauna when teammate Zach Bogosian came in and told him Guerin was looking for him. In 2022, Sturm was in the shower when Guerin got him out of there to let him know he had been traded to Colorado.
“Usually when the GM pulls you out of the sauna, it’s not a good thing,” Sturm said. “But he said, ‘I’ve got something for you,’ so it was a little happier occasion than last time he did that.”
Sturm said this ring is just as special as the one he earned with the Avs in 2022.
“Every time I look at it, you reminisce at the special memories,” Sturm said. “They’re locked away, but the Colorado one, every five, six weeks, you take a quick peek at it. I’m very focused on the here and now and what we’re trying to achieve here, but it’s nice and puts things in perspective and maybe when you’re in a phase where things aren’t going so well, it’s awesome to look back on.”
Asked jokingly if he plans to wear both rings when he marries his longtime fiancee Taylor Turnquist, Sturm said, “That may be a little tacky.”
Speaking of perspective, here’s Johansson, who nearly returned to Farjestad last offseason to wrap up his playing career, when asked if he’s thought about his future and whether he plans to continue playing in the NHL beyond this year: “I’m looking at this as I want to win the Olympics and then win the Stanley Cup.”
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