Stars at Wild preview

The defenseman, who was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Thursday, has not played since March 29, 2018, also against the Wild, because of post-traumatic headaches.

Dallas has lost two of its past three games following a six-game winning streak.

Minnesota ended a three-game winless streak (0-3-1) with a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday but is 2-5-1 in its past eight games. 

Players to watch

Stars defenseman Esa Lindell has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in his past eight games. 

Wild forward Marcus Foligno has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past six games. 

They said it 

"I'm really excited (to have Johns back). I'm very happy for him going back down and playing that well. He scored four points (one goal, three assists in two AHL games) and I heard he was really good. I met him here before the game (against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday) and it gives me a big smile for sure. He's a really good player and he's going to give this team a lot moving forward here if he can stay healthy. We're very excited to have him back." -- Stars defenseman John Klingberg

"The confidence we have coming in to [Saturday's] game is big. It's against a big division rival. … We just have to make sure we're staying on this work ethic and game plan." -- Wild forward Marcus Foligno 

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Joel Kiviranta 

Mattias Janmark -- Roope Hintz -- Alexander Radulov

Andrew Cogliano -- Jason Dickinson -- Corey Perry 

Denis Gurianov -- Joe Pavelski -- Blake Comeau

Esa Lindell -- Roman Polak 

Jamie Oleksiak -- John Klingberg 

Andrej Sekera -- Stephen Johns

Anton Khudobin

Ben Bishop

Scratched: Taylor Fedun, Justin Dowling

Injured: Radek Faksa (upper body), Miro Heiskanen (concussion protocol)

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello 

Jason Zucker -- Victor Rask -- Kevin Fiala

Marcus Foligno -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin

Jordan Greenway -- Mikko Koivu -- Ryan Hartman

Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba 

Carson Soucy -- Greg Pateryn

Alex Stalock

Devan Dubnyk

Scratched: Ryan Donato

Injured: Nick Seeler, Brad Hunt

Status report

Faksa, a forward, was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 11 and is expected to return after the NHL All-Star Break. … Minnesota did not hold a morning skate. 

Stat pack

Seguin has gone eight games without a goal and has five assists in that span. … Dallas is 5-0-1 in its past six games against Minnesota. … Koivu is two assists shy of 500 in the NHL. … Parise has three goals in his past two games.