Harding Leaves With Injury

In last night's Wild/Blues game, Wild goaltender Josh Harding had to be carried off the ice after suffering what is believed to be a serious knee injury after a multi-player pile-up on top of him in the 1st period.

An MRI on Saturday morning confirmed those fears, as it was revealed that Harding has suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee, which will now keep the back-up goalie out of the Wild line-up for an extensive period of time.  This injury will likely keep him out over eight weeks and even then, he may need some extra time to get back into game shape.

This injury should open up the back-up position for Anton Khudobin, who has a little bit more seniority in camp than the other goalie, Matthew Hackett, the team's 3rd round pick in 2009.  If you're getting short on goaltending late in the draft, Khudobin should be the goaltender that will be backing up Niklas Backstrom come the start of the year and likely through November.

Update (11:02 AM): the Wild are expecting Harding to miss the entire season with this injury, as his ACL will require surgery to reconstruct the ligament.  Surgery will not take place until the MCL has healed more, so this is definitely an indefinite situation.  I have moved Khudobin up onto the Wild roster and will have Harding listed as injured.

Link to the Injury/News Page