The Minnesota Wild are one of the National Hockey League's hottest teams to start the 2026-27 campaign — and that's been without the services of one of their most important players.

Brock Faber, who had his season debut delayed by a fracture skull during the preseason, returned to practice with his teammates last Thursday and could be an option for the club this weekend.

Hockey insider Frank Seravalli provided an update on the star defenseman on Wednesday morning.

“Hearing [Wild]'s Brock Faber is trending toward a Saturday night return to the lineup in Boston,” Seravalli wrote.

“Faber underwent surgery on Sept. 27 after suffering a skull fracture. Huge boost.”

The injury occured on Sept. 25 against the Dallas Stars; Faber was hit on the side of his helmet with a puck and later taken to hospital after the condition worsened. It was announced he had suffered a fractured skull and would be out indefinitely.

Head coach John Hynes told reporters last week that Faber has been cleared by team doctors to play, but the 24-year-old still needs to ramp up his strength and conditioning before getting into a game.

The Olympic gold medalist was sixth in team scoring in 2025-26, managing 15 goals and 51 points in 80 games along with a plus-18 rating.

“It could have been a lot worse if, one, if I got hit harder in that spot, and two, if I didn’t get the medical attention that I did,” Faber said recently. “I'm so glad to just put it in the past. It's so good to be back. If it would have got me a couple centimeters lower, it just would have hit me in the ear and I'd had to maybe get a couple stitches on my ear.

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“If it would have hit me a couple inches or centimeters higher, it hits me in the helmet and I'm fine. The area where I got hit, only a puck could fit there. And it just so happened that it hit me right there.”

Despite Faber's absence, the Minnesota leads the Western Conference at 13-3-4, and are tied with the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in the early Presidents' Trophy race.

The Wild opened a three-game road trip on Tuesday, beating the Montreal Canadiens in overtime at Bell Centre. They'll travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Thursday before wrapping up the trip at TD Garden in downtown Boston on Saturday — ideally with Faber in the lineup for the finale.