Brock Faber returned for the Minnesota Wild against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night after missing four games because of injury.Faber last played Jan. 7, when he left early in a 6-4 victory over the St.

Kirill Kaprizov was moved to retroactive long-term injured reserve and will not travel with the Wild on a two-game road trip (also at the Colorado Avalanche on Monday). The forward, who has missed 10 games because of a lower-body injury, practiced with the team Friday and is eligible to return when healthy.

Forward Jakub Lauko was activated off the Long-Term Injured Reserve. He practiced with the Wild on Friday and will return from his lower-body injury. Brock Faber will also return. Lauko, 24, missed the last 15 games with his injury. He has two goals, two assists, two fights, and 48 hits in 24 games.

Still, Hynes never imagined Kaprizov would be sidelined this long. He was actually placed on long-term injured reserve retroactively to have enough salary-cap space to juggle thei

Kaprizov has missed the past 10 games with a lower-body injury that has required lots of treatments and pushed-back timetables.

Kaprizov, who's been out since Dec. 23 with a lower-body injury, joined his first full practice since then on Friday as did defensemen Brock Faber (upper body) and Jared Spurgeon (lower body), according to The Athletic's Michael Russo.

I’m excited. I feel good. It obviously sucks being hurt. First time in a really long time that I’ve had to miss games,” said Brock Faber, who suffered an upper body injury early in a Jan. 7 home

His last shift, coming with 9:52 left in the first, ended relatively innocently and innocuously. He got tangled with Pavel Buchnevich in the corner, came back to the front of the net with the St. Louis Blues winger and skated slowly to the bench and down the tunnel. Coach John Hynes did not provide an update on Faber after the game.