Report: NHL team dealing with major cap issues may be forced to play shorthanded.

There are some very serious salary cap issues right now for the Minnesota Wild, so serious in fact that there is talk that they may actually be required to play shorthanded, and have already  practiced shorthanded.

According to a report from the Star Tribune's Mike Russo, a number of injuries as well as illness have caused Minnesota some major headaches in terms of the sheer number of players absent from their line up, and as a result the number of callups they would be required to make to remedy the situation. The Wild currently have Zach Parise, Marco Scandella, Zach Dalpe, Chris Stewart and Eric Haulpa all sidelined in one way or another, making for quite the list.

From Mike Russo:

The Wild's currently trying to figure out how it can afford three or four callups for Tuesday's game for Buffalo. Will it have to play shorthanded? Will Prosser have to play wing?

Right now, yes, unless the Wild figures out a way to create cap space by putting Scandella and maybe Victor Bartley on LTI (Long-term injury allows you to surpass the cap, but you must get compliant when the player returns), although the rule is convoluted on Bartley because the Wild's not absorbing his full cap hit in the first place after his training camp injury.

Just in case you think there's no way they won't play with a shorthanded roster, keep in mind that the issue is so serious they have already been forced to practice shorthanded, something that according to Russo did not please head coach Bruce Boudreau one bit.

We will be sure to update this story should the situation develop.

[pub]