Josh Harding Out Indefinitely After Off-Ice Incident

Photo: NHL.com

Today the Wild officially announced that goaltender Josh Harding will be out indefinitely after suffering a fractured right foot. The injury occurred on Sunday September 14th during an off ice incident. The release also indicated that Harding will not need surgery.

Before missing the final four months of the season, Harding posted Vezina worthy numbers by going 18-7-3 with a 1.65 Goals Against Average and .933 Save Percentage. He was sidelined on December 31st after experiencing complications from his Multiple Sclerosis treatment and was never seen from again.

With the Wild set to report for training camp tomorrow and Darcy Kuemper still in a showdown with Wild management over his contract, this is not good news for Minnesota. The team officially heads into camp with Niklas Backstrom and John Curry as the only goalies reporting to have played in an NHL game.

Mike Russo has already indicated that Ilya Bryzgalov will likely be headed back for St. Paul to get a tryout with the team in camp. Bryzgalov went 7-1-3 with a 2.12 GAA and .911 save percentage with the Wild last season, after being acquired just prior to the trade deadline.

Russo also hinted that this was an altercation/incident between Harding and a teammate. Chuck Fletcher and Mike Yeo were furious with the whole situation today when talking to Russo about it. Not exactly a great start to a season that was very promising, to say the least, for Minnesota.


UPDATE: Russo has reported that the Wild are bringing in Ilya Bryzgalov to training camp on a PTO.


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