"Marco Scandella was on an up-and-down road to what looked like a full-time NHL job with the Wild last season before he suffered a concussion March 19.

He's up today.

Scandella, 21, survived the biggest cut of Minnesota's training camp Sunday as the Wild reduced their roster to 28 by sending numerous players to their American Hockey League team in Houston.

General manager Chuck Fletcher said the team will start practices today with 24 healthy players, plus forwards Matt Kassian and Cody Almond, and defensemen Drew Bagnall and Mike Lundin, who are all nursing minor injuries.

Fletcher said the training camp emphasis will shift from examining young players to preparing for the regular season, which begins against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 8 at the Xcel Energy Center.

The team must reduce its final roster to 23 plus anyone on injured reserve a few days before the regular season begins.

Colton Gillies, Casey Wellman, Brett Bullmer, Nate Prosser and Justin Falk were the others who survived.

"There's never a final roster; you're always making changes," Fletcher said Sunday. "You never really make the team, you're always being challenged. There are players we assigned to Houston today that will be back. Today's just a snapshot in time." "