Kunin cleared, heads to Iowa for next step in return from ACL surgery

ST. PAUL --During the last week or two, it was easy to see that Wild forward Luke Kunin was getting a little antsy to take the next step in his rehab from ACL surgery.
The rookie forward, who played in 19 games with the NHL club last season before sustaining a torn ACL against the Detroit Red Wings on March 4 and had surgery almost a month later, spent the whole summer working his way back but was not cleared for contact until midway through training camp.
Even when he was, he was not cleared to take part in game action, so while teammates prepared to start the season like normal, all Kunin could do was watch.

"It's hard to make the team when you can't really participate all that much in camp," Kunin told Wild.com by phone on Monday. "But I understand the process. [Minnesota] is where I want to be and I'm not there so that drives me and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get up there.
"But I understand I gotta play games and I've gotta get back to where I was. And I think this will be a good step in doing that."
Now, the former Wisconsin Badger will get his chance to show what he can do.
Kunin was fully cleared by the team on Sunday and will report to Iowa of the American Hockey League where he will get a chance to play in some games, and hopefully, get back to the NHL soon. Kunin said he is expecting to play on Friday when Iowa hosts the Texas Stars at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
"I'm very excited. It's the longest I've been not playing a game my whole life I think," Kunin said. "Seven months is a long time and I'm a pretty competitive guy, I don't like watching hockey. And at the end of the day, no matter where it is right now, I'm just happy to be playing a game and getting back to how I know I can play."
Kunin hasn't been limited by much, if anything, from a skating perspective since the beginning of camp, but the team wanted to take a cautious approach with its young forward and not rush him back too soon.

"I talked to him after the game against Vegas and, obviously nobody wants to get sent down to the minors, but he knew he had to play games," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "I said, 'Listen, Zach [Parise] came off his injury, he had to go to Iowa. It's not a big deal. The American League is a tough league, so you gotta go down there and you gotta play well and get better. And when you do that, the evaluation will take place.'"
Kunin will have plenty of competition for ice time with Iowa, which swept Manitoba over the weekend, scoring wins of 4-1 on Friday and 8-1 on Saturday.
"You want him to be healthy and you want him to play down there a lot and get ready," Boudreau said. "I think everything depends on him and the way we play. Iowa obviously had a great first week and they have a lot of guys saying, 'If [Minnesota] keeps stumbling, I want to get my chance up there.'"

New look lines

Boudreau did some line juggling at practice on Monday at TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center.
Mikael Granlund was moved to the right side of Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu while Joel Eriksson Ek moved from the third line to the top group with Jason Zucker and Eric Staal. Nino Niederreiter moved to Eriksson Ek's old spot with Charlie Coyle and Jordan Greenway while the fourth line stayed the same.
"Obviously, we didn't have much offense last week], so something has to change," Boudreau said. "It's a subtle change, but I think I like Nino better on left wing than I do on right wing and we'll see, if my memory recalls, when him and Charlie were [on the same line], they seemed to be able to score some goals and really balance out the team. So hopefully it can work again."
Boudreau said he counted two total 5-on-5 scoring chances during the first and second periods in each of the first two games, a number that must increase if the Wild hopes to earn its first win of the season on Thursday when the Chicago Blackhawks come to town.
"And we scored on two of them," Boudreau said. "We know, we're not dummies, we knew that we didn't play fast enough. That's not going to be good enough if we want to be where we want to be."
**Related:**
- [Kunin aims for training camp return - Luke Kunin](https://www.nhl.com/wild/video/becoming-wild-luke-kunin/t-277437412/c-54084803)