On any given night, NHL teams have six defensemen in uniform and one or two more in reserve in case of injuries — which are all too common when your job is to get in the way of pucks often moving in excess of 100 mph.

The Wild currently have seven defensemen rostered, period, with newcomer David Jiricek serving as a healthy scratch for all eight games they have played since he was recalled from Iowa on March 1. They may soon have eight healthy defensemen, with the potential return of Jonas Brodin from an injury that has sidelined him since late February.

Whenever the University of Denver’s season ends, which could be as soon as a week from now when the NCAA’s regional round begins, there is an expectation that the Wild will at least try to sign 2024 first-round draft pick Zeev Buium. If they do, and bring him to St. Paul rather than Des Moines, that would give Minnesota nine defensemen, meaning that there will be two or three players left out for each game.

Veteran Jon Merrill, who has been a healthy scratch 10 times this season, clearly has no intention of getting left behind when the Wild blue line gets younger and healthier. In Monday night’s comeback win over Los Angeles, Merrill logged more than a dozen minutes, recorded three of the Wild’s 21 shots on goal and blocked two shots from getting to Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson.

In addition to all of that, he may have saved the game, literally, in the first period with the most important defensive play in the 60 minutes the Wild and Kings spent on the rink. At the time, Minnesota, mired in an offensive funk for all of March, already trailed by a goal and the Kings were pressing to put this one out of reach early.

Los Angeles winger Alex Laferriere got a shot on Gustavsson, which the goalie saved with his blocker. Laferriere grabbed the rebound and shot again, and again Gustavsson stopped the shot, sliding well out of the crease as he did so. With the goalie leaving the net vacant, and the puck on his stick again, Laferriere, from his knees, slid a shot toward the wide-open goalmouth with every intention of making the score 2-0 and forcing the Wild to score three goals in order to win.

The puck was roughly an inch from the goal line when Merrill arrived at precisely the right moment, grabbing the puck with the backhand side of his blade and steering it not only out of the crease but up the side boards before the Kings regained control. Gustavsson finished with 28 saves in the eventual 3-1 Wild win but acknowledged that Merrill had the most vital stop of the game.

“Best save of the night. I got it on the blocker there, and then I tried to poke check. I got it, and then I was like, ‘Here’s a goal,’ ” Gustavsson said. “And then you see Jonny coming there, saving the day a little bit. A save like that from Jonny brings a lot of energy to the team to keep going and just show that we’re not gonna fold easily today.”

Merrill, 33, made his first trip to Xcel Energy Center in April 2011, when he was a freshman at the University of Michigan and his Wolverines went to overtime in the NCAA title game versus Minnesota Duluth. Now in his fourth season with the Wild, he has a goal and three assists in 57 games.

Surrounded by a scrum of reporters following Monday’s win, Merrill talked of how important that play turned out in the grand scheme of a much-needed victory.

“We talked about coming into this game and doing whatever it took to get the win, playing desperate, being there for each other,” he said. “That’s all I was trying to do is be there for Gus, and got lucky it hit my stick.”

Wild coach John Hynes, who may have tough chart decisions to make if Brodin and possibly Buium are added to the mix pre-playoffs, had nothing but praise for Merrill’s overall game at a time of the season when all hands are needed on deck.

“He has been really solid. I think he’s playing some of his best hockey,” Hynes said. “I think from a defensive standpoint, his stick’s been good. He has been very competitive when he needs to be in the hard areas, the defensive areas of the game.”

In a season where players missing due to injury has been so much of the Wild’s story, the prospect of having an abundance of defensemen to choose from as the playoffs get closer is suddenly a good problem to have.