Palmer Gets The Call

The Minnesota Wild has already used more players than any other team, and it's going to use one more. Fridley native Jarod Palmer will be the 33rd Wild player to dress this season assuming he joins the lineup on Saturday night against the New York Islanders. It will mark the NHL debut for Palmer, who was signed as a college free agent in the summer of 2010.

Palmer will also become the fifth Minnesotan - Matt Cullen, Mike Lundin, Nate Prosser and Jeff Taffe - to play for the team this season, which is a club record.

To make room for Palmer, Guillaume Latendresse (concussion symptoms) was placed on injured reserve.

Now in his second season with the Houston Aeros, Palmer has played 26 games and registered four goals and six assists with a +8 rating. In 65 games last year, he posted nine goals, 19 assists and a +12 rating. The former Miami University Redhawk played four collegiate seasons and never missed a game while amassing 137 points (47-90=137) in 169 contests. He helped lead the Redhawks to the Frozen Four in 2009 and 2010.

Palmer's callup comes with the Wild's front lines being decimated by injuries. Mikko Koivu (lower body), Pierre-Marc Bouchard (facial injury), Devin Setoguchi (lower body) and Guillaume Latendresse (concussion symptoms) are all expected to miss tomorrow's game. Casey Wellman is also a question mark due to an upper body injury, but he did practice on Friday and expects to be good to go for Saturday.

Palmer is slated to be the first-ever player to wear 79 for the Wild. His most famous contribution to the Wild so far was his spectacular shootout goal in the Wild's 2010 Development camp that became a viral sensation.