At the Rink: Senators at Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Each of the Minnesota Wild’s NHL Trade Deadline acquisitions will debut Tuesday when the Wild host the Ottawa Senators at Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota traded Justin Falk and a fifth-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for defenseman Jordan Leopold, then moved a second-round pick in 2017 to the Buffalo Sabres for forward Chris Stewart.

Leopold, a native of Golden Valley, Minn., was expected to be a depth defenseman down the stretch, but with injuries to Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon, will get a chance to play.

“He wants to come here, he wants to contribute, and he really wants to become part of this group. That’s what you want,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “You want people to come here and get invested into the group and really want to play for something bigger than just money or a new contract. For him, I know that absolutely 100 percent he’s playing something bigger.”

Spurgeon will miss his sixth game with an upper-body injury, believed to be concussion-like symptoms. He skated Monday, took part in the morning skate, and could return to the lineup as soon as Thursday when the Wild play at the Washington Capitals.

Yeo said Scandella has had a setback with his undisclosed injury and will likely miss at least the next week.

In Stewart, the Wild are getting a power element they have been missing this season. He skated on a line with Thomas Vanek and Mikko Koivu and could see some time on the power play.

“I’ve seen it many times where teams think they’ve got an edge on us physically and they try to impose that in the game,” Yeo said. “Our team is tough in a much different sense than most people think. We respond well in those games, our guys continue to go to the hard areas, we win a lot of battles, but we’re not necessarily a physically imposing team in a lot of ways. I think [Stewart] changes a lot of that identity.”

Plugging Stewart into the second line moves Sean Bergenheim to the third line and Jordan Schroeder out of the lineup.

Schroeder has played well since Jason Zucker went down with an injury. He has three goals, seven points and a plus-9 rating in 16 games this season.

“It was going to be a tough decision no matter who we took out of the lineup tonight,” Yeo said. “Obviously, trade for a guy like [Stewart], we’re going to put him in and that takes somebody out of the lineup, so it was going to be a tough decision one way or the other. It kind of came down to the fact that [Schroeder] doesn’t have a penalty-kill role, doesn’t have a power-play role right now.”

Ottawa will welcome forward Curtis Lazar back to the lineup. He missed the Senators’ game against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday because of illness. Coach Dave Cameron said Lazar will skate on the third line in place of Colin Greening.

Forward Jared Cowen, eligible to return following a three-game suspension for an interference infraction on Jussi Jokinen of the Florida Panthers on Feb. 21, will not play because of illness.

Here are the projected lineups:

SENATORS

Mike Hoffman - Mika Zibanejad - Bobby Ryan

Milan Michalek - Kyle Turris - Mark Stone

Curtis Lazar - David Legwand - Alex Chiasson

Erik Condra - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Matt Puempel

Marc Methot - Erik Karlsson

Patrick Wiercioch - Cody Ceci

Mark Borowiecki - Eric Gryba

Andrew Hammond

Chris Driedger

Scratched: Colin Greening

Injured: Jared Cowen (ill), Zack Smith (wrist), Craig Anderson (hand), Chris Neil (thumb), Clarke MacArthur (concussion), Robin Lehner (concussion), Chris Phillips (soreness)

WILD

Zach Parise - Mikael Granlund - Jason Pominville

Chris Stewart - Mikko Koivu - Thomas Vanek

Nino Niederreiter - Charlie Coyle - Sean Bergenheim

Erik Haula - Kyle Brodziak - Justin Fontaine

Ryan Suter - Jonas Brodin

Nate Prosser - Matt Dumba

Jordan Leopold - Christian Folin

Devan Dubnyk

Darcy Kuemper

Scratched: Niklas Backstrom, Jordan Schroeder

Injured: Jared Spurgeon (upper body), Marco Scandella (undisclosed), Jason Zucker (clavicle), Matt Cooke (sports hernia), Ryan Carter (upper body), Keith Ballard (concussion/facial fractures)

Status report: Cowen is a possibility to return in the second of back-to-back games Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets. ... Leopold was a healthy scratch for much of his time in Columbus, playing in five games since mid-December.

Who’s hot: Hoffman is coming off a three-point, two-goal night against the Sharks on Saturday and has been a point-per-game player since the All-Star break. He scored two goals against the Wild in a 3-0 win on Nov. 6. ... Haula has back-to-back two-point games after scoring one point in his previous 15 overall.