Merrill played in his sixth straight game in Tuesday's 2-1 shootout win over the Avalanche.

EDGE Analysis

Merrill has gone minus-3 in that span, and his overall point drought is up to 21 games. Still, the Wild appear to trust him to fill in on the third pairing while Jonas Brodin (lower body) is out rather than moving a different blueliner to their off side to get David Jiricek in action. Merrill has just four points, 37 shots on net, 71 blocked shots, 31 hits and a minus-5 rating over 54 appearances this season.