A fractured skull just cost the Wild their best defenseman
Brock Faber had surgery Sunday for a skull fracture with no return timeline, and Minnesota's top defensive pairing just lost its anchor.
Minnesota's best defenseman is out indefinitely. Faber had surgery for a fractured skull, and the timeline nobody can give you is the scary part.
Faber took a puck off the left side of his head in the second period of Friday's preseason game against Dallas. He finished the period. He didn't play the third.
He had surgery Sunday. GM Bill Guerin said Tuesday there's no return date, and there won't be one until the doctors give him one.
Faber is 24 and coming off a career year. He put up 51 points in 80 games last season, averaged 24:41 a night, and carried a top-pairing workload on a playoff team.
He won Olympic gold with Team USA at Milano Cortina this year. He's a five-year veteran with 127 points in 242 games, and he was set to anchor Minnesota's top pair again this season.
Losing him for any real stretch means losing the guy who ate the toughest minutes against the other team's best players.
Guerin's language matters here. "The biggest thing is that he's doing well," he said, and the club is putting Faber's health ahead of any hockey calendar. That's the right call. It's also the tell: a team doesn't talk that way about a guy they expect back for the opener.
Ferda take: a fractured skull isn't a day-to-day injury, and Minnesota shouldn't pretend otherwise. Faber's whole game is built on being the guy who's never off the ice.
He played through the third period on instinct after getting hit in the head. That's exactly what makes this scarier, not less.
A team that just lost its workhorse defenseman needs a real Plan B on the back end, not a wait-and-see approach. Whoever slides into that top pairing is getting thrown into a role he isn't built for yet.
What's next: the Wild open the regular season this week without their best defenseman and no return date to plan around. Watch who Minnesota pairs at the top of the lineup on opening night. That assignment says more about how the front office actually feels about Faber's timeline than anything said at a podium.
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