Late last week, Michael Russo, Minnesota Wild beat writer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, tweeted out that Mario Lucia had his cast removed for his broken leg, and hoped to be back on the ice for Notre Dame by Thanksgiving.
On today's WCHA coaches' conference call, Minnesota head coach Don Lucia reported that his son Mario is expected to begin skating again on October 25th. Obviously starting skating is a long ways from being ready to play in a game, but it is an incredibly optimistic sign that Lucia can start working out to get ready for game conditions so early.
That timeline gives Lucia a pretty realistic shot at being close to 100% with a few games under his belt in time to participate on this year's US World Junior team, which would obviously be a huge boost to the team. Notre Dame plays seven games between Thanksgiving and December 15th, and even if Lucia can't play in all of them, playing in some would go a long ways in getting him ready for the tournament.