Article: Are the Wild Really Going To Carry Three Goalies?

[Luke Sims]

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[Citizen Strife]

Fleury and Gustavsson brought this on themselves with their play last season.  I think the team is hedging their bets thinking the defense and PK will improve enough that they should be all right.  I think Guerin and Hynes are smart to say, "Let's see how Wallstedt handles maybe 5-10 games if he gets those.  The Dallas game was the Dallas game.  But you can't give up 7 or get shutouts every single time.  I think the Wild want to give Wallstedt just enough exposure that he knows what different teams offer a challenges.

I don't think there's anything wrong with holding all three.  Outside of Liam Ohgren or Hunt or Lambos, is there any forward or defenseman that is going to make an appreciable difference that Wallstedt couldn't?  Those players will get their chances when Johansson and Merrill are dumped.

[Pewterschmidt]

39 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

The Dallas game was the Dallas game.  But you can't give up 7 or get shutouts every single time.  I think the Wild want to give Wallstedt just enough exposure that he knows what different teams offer

This is kind of captain obvious on my part but I think the skill gap between ahl and nhl is a canyon not a crevice (pronounced cre-voss to be a deuche)

Wally has proven he can dominate in ahl just like Rossi did but it’s apples and oranges compared to nhl.  Wall needs to get his reps in big league and take his lumps learning and growing every night.  I expect to see some 7 rip nights from him this season as part of the growth process

[Citizen Strife]

https://heavy.com/sports/nhl/new-york-rangers/trade-pitch-rangers-wild-brodin/

Funny click bait trade alert time again.

Offer is Brodin/Zucc/2nd to NYR for Kakko/Lindgren/Brodzinski, plus 1st/5th

Again, this is yet another dumb trade idea, but it benefits the Wild...in a certain scenario.

If the Wild want to try out some...less than impressive players and save money this and next year, plus get a 25-30 pick instead of a 40-50 pick, ok.

But Brodin is still a lynchpin of the defense.  You'd have to be convinced Buium and Lambos or others are immediate help.  Middleton as the top left pair guy for even a little bit scares me.

So, I like it in theory.  Brodin isn't getting any younger.

 

 

[Protec]

I don't see the problem with it. Vaj was brought in to play big AHL minutes and have a chance to play a lot of games there. Wallstedt is good enough there to have earned NHL reps. Gus and Fleury have left us with questions.

Will Wallstedt benefit from playing with the other two and competing? Yeah, I think he'll learn and be glad to have some insulation from being "THE guy". Will it force Gus to be better, I think so, and it will not force the Wild to rely on Fleury for the number one position like they did at times last year.

Not that Fleury isn't still capable, but will he be durable and sharp? If the defense is better, none of the goalies can use that excuse. So will accountability increase? It should for NoJo but all bets are off cause it never happened other than a couple Darby-talks.

It seems like there's some fat to be trimmed at the bottom of the roster for the sake of the cap but all the goalies have a clean slate to compete and none a re really suited to return to the AHL. If Gus and Wally emerge, great. If either falters, bummer but there's redundancy at the position so I don't think that's a bad thing. If Wallstedt is the goalie of the future and the hype is true, he should take over the net and prove that. At the same time, GMBG would like to ease the progression to minimize the raise he'll require. Let's say he gets 15-20 games. That's a nice bump from before without de-facto making him the 1A and needing a huge raise. Gus is locked in, Fleury retires, and Wally gets an extension that fits for the team. That way you're not holding him down in the AHL and you're not setting up a salary-cap dilemma.

Edited 1 hour ago by Protec

[Burnt Toast]

I just can’t see Wild Management benching MAF no matter how he plays. I believe they have his starts set aside for him already. The only competition is if Gus tanks and JW breaks out and looks amazing in his first few starts in the NHL. I still believe JW will start the season in Iowa. If Gus plays near or slightly above league average I put the over under on JW’s starts at 10. Next year should be a lot of fun with Gus and JW competing for #1 status.