Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber returns seven weeks after skull fracture surgery

Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber is set to make his season debut just seven weeks after suffering a skull fracture. The 24-year-old has been out since the preseason, when he underwent surgery for the injury.

In the Wild's final preseason tune-up game against the Dallas Stars, a shot from Dallas's Miro Heiskanen hit Faber in the head and he went down. He was able to skate off under his own power, but it was later revealed that he had fractured his skull and had surgery just days before the start of the season.

The Athletic's Michael Russo reported that Faber is ready to return just seven weeks later. Ahead of the team's Saturday game against the Boston Bruins, head coach John Hynes said, "He's ready to play, so we've got to play him."

Hynes said part of the plan will be putting Faber back into the situations he can play in and managing his minutes. He also said he expects Faber to play on special teams, getting time on both the power play and the penalty kill, which the report said shows how important Faber is to the team.

Faber is a member of the gold medal-winning USA men's hockey team and was described in the report as a stellar top-pair defenseman. The report also said the team played pretty well without him.

Despite Faber's absence, the Wild held a five-point lead over the Nashville Predators in the Central Division going into Saturday's 14-game slate. Bringing him back will mean mixing up defensive pairings, but the report said a little time to restore chemistry is a small price to pay to have Faber back in the lineup.