Brock Faber Is Out, and Three Games Tonight

The season is one night old and the biggest story isn't from a game that counted. Brock Faber, Minnesota's top-pair defenceman, is out indefinitely with a fractured skull. The Wild open tomorrow in Nashville without him.

What happened to Faber

It happened in the last week of the preseason, in Minnesota's 2-1 loss to Dallas on Friday, 25 September. At 10:24 of the second period, a shot from Sam Steel hit Faber on the side of the head, near the ear, where the helmet doesn't cover. "If it was a quarter of an inch higher it just hits his helmet," coach John Hynes said.

Faber went down, got up, and skated to the bench on his own. He took his next shift and finished the period. He didn't come out for the third. He had surgery on Sunday, and the Wild have put him on injured reserve.

There is no timeline. "We'll follow the doctor's leads," general manager Bill Guerin said. With a skull fracture that's the only honest answer, and nobody should plan around a return date that hasn't been given.

What the Wild lose

Faber is 24 and going into his fourth full season. He's played 242 NHL games and has 127 points. Last season was his best: 15 goals and 36 assists for 51 points in 80 games, at 24:41 a night. Only one Wild skater played more.

He did more than score. He played on the top pair with Quinn Hughes, and he was a fixture on both special teams. So the Wild aren't replacing one player. They have to rebuild three units:

• Top pair. Captain Jared Spurgeon moves up beside Hughes.
• Power play. Spurgeon also takes Faber's spot there.
• Penalty kill. Daemon Hunt and Zach Bogosian split his minutes.

Spurgeon is the one to watch. He's 36, and for most of the last few seasons he hasn't been anyone's fantasy defenceman. Top-pair minutes next to Hughes plus a power-play spot is a different job. If your league's waiver wire is still open, he's the name to check first. Hughes loses his partner, but his own role doesn't change. Leave him where he is.

In the division picks I published yesterday I had Minnesota third in the Central, close behind Dallas. One defenceman doesn't change that on its own, but it makes it harder to catch Dallas early. The Wild open at Nashville tomorrow night (8 p.m.) and are home to Boston on Saturday.

Last night, briefly

Five games opened the season. Florida won 1-0 in overtime at Carolina, in Carolina's first game as defending champion. Montreal won 3-2 in Toronto. The Bruins shut out the Rangers 3-0. Vancouver beat Edmonton 6-5 in overtime, and Vegas beat Chicago 5-2.

Tonight's three games

Pittsburgh at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m. Last spring, the Flyers made the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and knocked out the Penguins in the first round. That's the backdrop tonight. I have the Flyers third in the Metropolitan and the Penguins sixth, mostly because of age and goaltending: Crosby is 39, Malkin 40, and the Pittsburgh net belongs to Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov. Philadelphia has Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll, who came over from Toronto.

NY Islanders at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. Toronto plays its second game in two nights. On Tuesday the Leafs lost 3-2 to Montreal. William Nylander scored both goals, and Sergei Bobrovsky, in his first game as a Leaf, stopped 21 of 24. Jakub Dobes made 26 saves for Montreal. Gavin McKenna played 15:19 in his NHL debut with one shot, and Auston Matthews had three shots in 22:34 without a point. On a back-to-back, teams usually split the goaltending, so don't be surprised if Anthony Stolarz starts. The Islanders are playing their first game. Matthew Schaefer and Ilya Sorokin are the reasons to watch.

Los Angeles at Colorado, 10 p.m. This is a first-round rematch: Colorado swept the Kings last spring. The Avalanche had 121 points last season and are my pick to win the Central. The Kings have Peter Laviolette behind the bench, Artemi Panarin for a full season, and no Anze Kopitar for the first time in 20 years. Kevin Fiala is on the roster but starts the season hurt.

What to do with this

Not much, yet. One night is five games, and tonight adds three more. The one thing worth acting on today is Minnesota's blue line: Faber is out with no date, and Spurgeon has his job. We'll do a proper week-one recap once every team has played.

Earlier this week: my division picks for 2026-27.