Minnesota Wild Move Struggling Dany Heatley to Second Line

Days after the Minnesota Wild sent Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri to the New York Rangers for Mike Rupp, another player shake up has happened in Minnesota.

Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has reported that the Wild have broken up their heralded first line of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise and Dany Heatley. Rookie Charlie Coyle, who made his debut in the 2-1 loss to Phoenix on Monday night, will take Heatley's spot alongside Parise and Koivu.

Heatley, a former 50-goal scorer with the Ottawa Senators, has four goals and two assists in nine games this season but has no points in his last three contests and only eight shots in his last six. Heatley joins Matt Cullen and Pierre-Marc Bouchard on the second line.

Kyle Brodziak and Cal Clutterbuck remain on the third line while Devin Setoguchi and Mikael Granlund compete for the third spot.

Torrey Mitchell and Zenon Konopka make up the fourth line along with Mike Rupp, who will likely make his Wild debut against the Canucks tomorrow night.

Head coach Mike Yeo made the Healtey switch in an attempt to jump start a team that is ranked 23rd in goals scored (21) and finished dead last in scoring last season. In addition to that, the 4-4-1 Wild have lost their last nine regulation road games dating back to last season, and haven't won in regulation on the road since February 2, 2012.

And to make matters worse, the Wild only have nine points after making the big free agency splash over the summer by signing Parise and Ryan Suter. They Wild are currently tied for ninth place in the Western Conference.

The Wild play their next two games at Excel Energy Center before heading to Canada to take on Calgary and Vancouver next week.