Wild place Matt Kiersted on waivers

Friedman also reported that both Noah Gregor and Dennis Cholowski, who were placed on waivers Friday by the Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils, respectively, cleared and are eligible to be sent down to their AHL affiliates.

Kiersted, 27, has one assist in four games with the Wild this season, averaging 13:42 of ice time. He’s also appeared in 23 AHL games with the Iowa Wild, recording three assists and 16 penalty minutes.

In 43 career NHL games, Kiersted, a native of Elk River, Minn., has two goals and six assists for eight points with Minnesota and the Panthers.

He’s also played in 256 career regular-season AHL games with Iowa and the Charlotte Checkers, where he’s scored 16 goals and recorded 72 assists for 88 points and 217 penalty minutes.

Kiersted, an undrafted defender, spent four years playing NCAA hockey with the University of North Dakota. In 127 career games, he scored 20 goals and recorded 57 assists for 77 points. He reached career highs in all offensive categories in his junior season, where he finished with six goals and 23 assists for 29 points in 33 games.

He also spent parts of three seasons with the Chicago Steel in the USHL, where he recorded six goals and 32 assists for 38 points in 91 career games.

The Wild are 26-11-8 with 60 points through 45 games in 2025-26, third in the Central Division, the Western Conference and the entire league. Going into Saturday, they have a fourth-ranked goal differential of plus-22, they are 11th on the power play with a 22.3% success rate and 27th on the penalty kill with 76.6%.