Article: Can the Wild Bet It All On Jesper Wallstedt Next Season?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Hey, for all we know, the team could trade Gus+other stuff to Detroit for...Husso and Holl.

Excuse me while I die inside from laughter.  Fan sites for other teams dreamweird and big too, don't they?

[MNCountryLife]

I would have preferred Fleury Retired and run with Gus(1) and Wall(2).  BG saw different.  Our roster needs help.  Gus traded is 3.75M in our back pocket.  Gives us options that we don't have otherwise.

[bisopher]

Keep Gus and Flower as 1A / 1B (or vice versa) for 24-25, and keep the Wall in Iowa as 1C getting plenty of starts and learning (together with the rest of the team) how to win.   Bring up the Wall when (inevitably) Gus or Flower get injured or sick and put him right into the rotation, which should get him 10 or so NHL games.

Then Gus and the Wall (both with more experience and, ideally, with MAF as a "goalie consultant) go 1A/1B in 25-26 when the worst cap penalties are over.

[mnfaninnc]

  On 5/21/2024 at 9:10 PM, MNCountryLife said:

Gus traded is 3.75M in our back pocket.  Gives us options that we don't have otherwise.

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This is true, but, Goose staying also gives us options, injury protection, and he's not breaking the bank. If we run 3 goaltenders, we would be running the same cap in goalies as we did this past season. I would recommend betting on Goose having a bounce back year and playing The Wall fairly consistently. The Wall was very good against weak competition and any goalie would have struggled that night in Dallas as gassed as the team was.

 

[mnfaninnc]

There's some pretty good goalies in that list. 

Askarov was supposed to be an all world goalie too, and his draft year was 1 year ahead of The Wall. It kind of makes you wonder why he wasn't elevated full time last season to Nashville?

On the one hand, The Wall has got to see the speed of NHL shooters. He needs to work on his angles and drifting. On the other hand, Goose, Fleury and The Wall have all spent some time on the injured list, and I think you can probably guarantee that if Fleury sees a lot of action, he'll hurt himself again. It's only a matter of time before the rubber band snaps.

My preference would have been running with Goose and The Wall, having Fleury in the back pocket to sign in a "break glass in case of emergency" type of situation. I'm really concerned if we send Goose packing and the injury bug hits. For me, I think there is a lack of quality goaltending around.

One other item, I did not see Oettinger on that list. Vasilevskiy is a special talent. Is The Wall ready for 40 games? 

I'll give Tony credit, he stated it was a risk. I just don't think it's a risk we need to take. I watched the Canes this year have their top guy go down and it really messed with their game. They could out shoot and out play a team by double and still lose. I watched one of those games, and there were several. Demoralizing is probably too light of a word to use. And our guys are mentally shaky.

[Burnt Toast]

  On 5/21/2024 at 9:10 PM, MNCountryLife said:

preferred Fleury Retired

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This was my hope also. Sure it’s fun to have MAF around but I don’t think it gives the Wild their best shot at competing. Gus could always be traded after next year if The Wall breaks out. Everyone keeps talking about MAF mentoring JW but with their dramaticly different styles of play personally I think that reasoning is overblown. JW comes from a hockey family, heavy on the goaltending side. But hey maybe I’m wrong and MAF’s second career is as a goalie whisperer. 

[Morty]

  On 5/22/2024 at 1:08 AM, Burnt Toast said:

This was my hope also. Sure it’s fun to have MAF around but I don’t think it gives the Wild their best shot at competing. Gus could always be traded after next year if The Wall breaks out. Everyone keeps talking about MAF mentoring JW but with their dramaticly different styles of play personally I think that reasoning is overblown. JW comes from a hockey family, heavy on the goaltending side. But hey maybe I’m wrong and MAF’s second career is as a goalie whisperer. 

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Agreed their styles are way different. Fluery needs to move on. Keep Gus & the WALL. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

  On 5/21/2024 at 11:09 PM, mnfaninnc said:

One other item, I did not see Oettinger on that list. Vasilevskiy is a special talent. Is The Wall ready for 40 games? 

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With the bar set at 30+ games, looks like Oettinger just missed. He played 29 games for Dallas in 20-21, posting a .911 save percentage.

So far, Oettinger has a .917 postseason save percentage for his career, and .918 in this playoffs. I know a lot of people don't want to see the Stars win it all, but Oettinger hoisting the trophy wouldn't be a terrible thing to me. His team is the best in the West!

[Imyourhuckleberry]

  On 5/21/2024 at 11:09 PM, mnfaninnc said:

On the one hand, The Wall has got to see the speed of NHL shooters. He needs to work on his angles and drifting. On the other hand, Goose, Fleury and The Wall have all spent some time on the injured list, and I think you can probably guarantee that if Fleury sees a lot of action, he'll hurt himself again. It's only a matter of time before the rubber band snaps.

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Yeah, if Gus were gone, I'd be concerned for either goalie missing time. Fleury needing to play 55-60 games would be bad. Wallstedt might be a little better if forced to play a heavy slate of games, but definitely seems best to avoid it.

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/21/2024 at 8:52 PM, Citizen Strife said:

Hey, for all we know, the team could trade Gus+other stuff to Detroit for...Husso and Holl.

Excuse me while I die inside from laughter.  Fan sites for other teams dreamweird and big too, don't they?

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You win the interwebz this week! 😂🤣

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/21/2024 at 9:10 PM, MNCountryLife said:

I would have preferred Fleury Retired and run with Gus(1) and Wall(2).  BG saw different.  Our roster needs help.  Gus traded is 3.75M in our back pocket.  Gives us options that we don't have otherwise.

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Performance-wise I agree. 
 

The word is that Gus doesn't take his fitness seriously. The Wall doesn't need to learn that habit. GMBG wants Flower to be the hands-on teacher for The Wall.

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/22/2024 at 1:08 AM, Burnt Toast said:

Everyone keeps talking about MAF mentoring JW but with their dramaticly different styles of play

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It's more about the off-the-ice stuff...Gus has some bad behaviors.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

  On 5/22/2024 at 3:42 PM, FredJohnson said:

GMBG wants Flower to be the hands-on teacher for The Wall.

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The highest paid goalie coach in the league, and not as good as Gustavsson between the pipes. The fitness stuff is old news. Gus has given indications that he's motivated to be more focused on that stuff moving forward.

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/22/2024 at 3:56 PM, Imyourhuckleberry said:

The fitness stuff is old news. Gus has given indications that he's motivated to be more focused on that stuff moving forward.

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[FredJohnson]

A lot depends on how much can be had for trading Gus.

[MNCountryLife]

  On 5/22/2024 at 4:45 PM, FredJohnson said:

A lot depends on how much can be had for trading Gus.

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And that is the key right there.  What is the ROI.  Using it to keep talent that we would otherwise lose or bringing in talent that we didn't have and what is the upgrade.  If we spend it on a player that is $2M AAV quality...then keep Gus.  If we can snag a $4M AAV quality player... then move Gus.  We will gain more than we lose.

[Up North Guy]

  On 5/21/2024 at 10:39 PM, bisopher said:

Keep Gus and Flower as 1A / 1B (or vice versa) for 24-25, and keep the Wall in Iowa as 1C getting plenty of starts and learning (together with the rest of the team) how to win.   Bring up the Wall when (inevitably) Gus or Flower get injured or sick and put him right into the rotation, which should get him 10 or so NHL games.

Then Gus and the Wall (both with more experience and, ideally, with MAF as a "goalie consultant) go 1A/1B in 25-26 when the worst cap penalties are over.

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Lots of folks keep talking about Flower as a coach or consultant. I am not sure where that is coming from. Yes, he has stated that he and his family like living in Minnesota. He also is building a home for his retirement in Vegas where he also loved living and was adored by the fans. I suspect that Vegas will be home and the lack of state income taxes will help overcome any misgivings he may have.

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/22/2024 at 5:17 PM, MNCountryLife said:

And that is the key right there.  What is the ROI.  Using it to keep talent that we would otherwise lose or bringing in talent that we didn't have and what is the upgrade.  If we spend it on a player that is $2M AAV quality...then keep Gus.  If we can snag a $4M AAV quality player... then move Gus.  We will gain more than we lose.

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Agreed.

Or if the other team will take Frauddie and NoJo...they can have the Gus Bus. (Only slightly joking)

[FredJohnson]

  On 5/22/2024 at 5:57 PM, Up North Guy said:

Lots of folks keep talking about Flower as a coach or consultant.

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Mentor.

[Sviginak]

We have 3 goalies for about 7m in cap tied up. The Wall needs a break in season of 10-20 games during Flower’s last season. We need to see if Gus bounces back and develops better work habits so he can stick around after next season. Seems to be a good set up for our situation. 

There are 36 UFA and 34 RFA goalies this summer so it is not looking like Gus will draw interest that will give us the value we would want to trade him. 

 

[bean5302]

I'd probably trade Gus if I could. I was against extending him in the amount the Wild spent last year because I didn't believe he'd proven he was reliable. It doesn't really matter now as Gustavsson it's in the past, but I feel the same way about him this time around.

The Wild don't have the luxury of hanging on to a bunch of parts. There is no wiggle room with their brutal dead cap.

[Protec]

  On 6/2/2024 at 4:08 PM, bean5302 said:

I'd probably trade Gus if I could. I was against extending him in the amount the Wild spent last year because I didn't believe he'd proven he was reliable. It doesn't really matter now as Gustavsson it's in the past, but I feel the same way about him this time around.

The Wild don't have the luxury of hanging on to a bunch of parts. There is no wiggle room with their brutal dead cap.

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100%. His value last Summer was at it's max. Another goalie could have been found and given what happened with Fleury playing a lot of games and being durable it kinda seemed like that woulda been a better timing. Now the doubt remains. He can be good, but if you're long-term planning for Wallstedt, then why delay? Thinking he would take a step forward last off-season is alright because, give him that chance. Now it's kinda like trade him or last chance before Wallstedt jumps him in the rotation as Vaj sneaks up and Fleury retires.