The Minnesota Wild are still waiting on more information on star defenceman Brock Faber, who departed Friday’s preseason game after taking a shot to the head during a play in the defensive zone.
Faber was hit in the left ear area by a shot from Sam Steel in the second period of their game against the Dallas Stars. He went down to the ice quickly, before skating to the bench under his own power. Faber played the rest of the period but did not return to the ice for the third period.
Faber was not on the ice at the team’s practice on Saturday.
“You’ve got to let some things resolve,” Wild head coach John Hynes said Saturday, per Joe Smith of The Athletic. “Some of it was precautionary. It’s a delicate area. We didn’t need to push it ... There’s usually 24 to 48 hours where you have different check-ins (with doctors) on it and see where it goes from there.”
The Wild called up defenceman Carson Lambos from the AHL’s Iowa Wild to give the team four pairings in practice with Faber out, and veteran Jared Spurgeon moved to the top pairing alongside Quinn Hughes.
The 24-year-old Faber has ascended to the elite ranks of defencemen across the NHL entering his fifth season in the league. Originally a second-round pick (45th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Los Angeles Kings, Faber set career-highs this past season with 15 goals and 51 points.
A native of Maple Grove, Minn., Faber has represented the United States twice at the World Juniors, and more recently, he helped the USA to silver at the 4 Nations Face-Off and gold at the 2026 Olympics at Milano-Cortina.
