Wild at Jets preview

The 26-year-old center was acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Monday for forward Brendan Lemieux, a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.

The Jets are 1-3-1 in their past five games and trail the Nashville Predators by one point for first in the Central Division. 

The Wild have won three in a row and hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. 

Forward Kevin Fiala, who was traded to Minnesota by Nashville for center Mikael Granlund on Monday, was not at the morning skate but is expected to play. 

Players to watch

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk is 3-0-0 with a 1.32 goals-against average and .956 save percentage in his past three starts 

Jets forward Patrik Laine has four points (three goals, one assist) in a three-game point streak after having two assists in his previous 12 games.  

They said it

"I think we're feeling a lot better about our game over the past three, started to build some confidence and how we need to play. It's going to be a fun battle down the last 19 games. There's so many teams involved. Every night's going to feel real good or real bad." -- Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk

"I'm really excited, a little nervous but everyone's been super welcoming here and I've met a lot of people today." -- Jets center Kevin Hayes

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Luke Kunin -- Kevin Fiala

Jordan Greenway -- Eric Staal -- Jason Zucker

Ryan Donato -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Pontus Aberg

Marcus Foligno -- Eric Fehr -- J.T. Brown

Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Greg Pateryn

Brad Hunt -- Nick Seeler

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Anthony Bitetto

Injured: Matt Dumba (upper body), Mikko Koivu (knee), Victor Rask (lower body)

Jets projected lineup

Patrik Laine -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler

Kyle Connor -- Kevin Hayes -- Nikolaj Ehlers

Andrew Copp -- Adam Lowry -- Brandon Tanev

Mathieu Perreault -- Bryan Little -- Jack Roslovic

Nathan Beaulieu -- Jacob Trouba

Ben Chiarot -- Sami Niku

Dmitry Kulikov -- Tyler Myers 

Connor Hellebuyck

Laurent Brossoit

Scratched: Matt Hendricks, Par Lindholm, Bogdan Kiselevich

Injured: Joe Morrow (lower body), Dustin Byfuglien (lower body), Josh Morrissey (upper body)

Status report

Seeler is expected to replace Bitetto for Minnesota. … Morrissey will be out until at least April. He'll be replaced on Winnipeg's top pair by Beaulieu, who was acquired Monday in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for a sixth-round pick in the 2019 draft.

Stat pack

Parise and Staal each have four points (one goal, three assists) in respective three-game point streaks. … Scheifele has no points in his past five games.