Lambos Gets the Call

The Minnesota Wild recalled 23-year-old defenseman Carson Lambos from the AHL on Thursday, sending Justin Kirkland back to Iowa in the corresponding move. It is a straightforward transaction on paper. In context, it is the latest sign that the blue line situation here has moved past inconvenient and into genuinely thin.

Spurgeon missed Wednesday against Winnipeg with an upper-body injury, as I noted after that game. With him out and the depth chart already leaning hard on Quinn Hughes, Minnesota needed a body, and Lambos is the one they have. He is 23, he is a prospect they believe in, and he is now being asked to help patch a defense that has been short-handed since before the season found its footing.

The gap between Hughes and everyone else on this blue line has been a known issue. Lambos stepping in does not close it — that is not what a recall from the AHL is supposed to do. What it does is keep the Wild from going into a game short on the back end. That is the job right now, and it is enough of a job on its own.