Article: The Wild Need This Version Of Gustavsson To Solve Their Goalie Situation

[Aaron Heckmann]

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[Citizen Strife]

I wanted to see Gus get back to the Top 20 or even Top 30 goaltenders.  But I'll take Top 10-15 stats too.

[FredJohnson]

Trade heem while he's hawt! (Sarcasm)

[Imyourhuckleberry]

The idea of trading him generally seemed terrible. Gus at the top of his game could be very good for this season and next. They don't know yet if Wallstedt can be better.

[MrCheatachu]

Quote

Gustavsson wasn’t good enough, and the Wild couldn’t depend on him like they did the previous year. As a result, they ended up re-signing Marc-Andre Fleury for a one-year extension.

I don't think SillyG signed MAF because GusBus wasn't looking like he could carry the load.  I think SillyG signed MAF because MAF didn't want to retire and SillyG wanted to take care of one of his guys.

I'm stoked GusBus looks good so far, but remember last season where in the opener he stopped all 41 shots against FLA for an opening night shutout?  Or then 2 games later (after letting TOR drop 7 goals on 33 shots) pulled off an OT winner by stopping 49 of the 54 shots that CBJ threw at him?  Or look at last March, when he went 3-1-1 with a 1.42gaa, 0.947sv%. 

I'm all for the excitement of GusBus being back, and at least his confidence is back, but let's temper some of the expectations here that this pace is going to be sustainable all season, especially if Spurgeon is not 100% and Brodin is to get injured again

 

[MacGyver]

It's a exercise in futility in trying to determine what you are going to get from any goaltender in any given game. You roll with the hot goaltender until he isn't hot anymore and that happens with all of them. You are buying hope with any goal tender in any game. There are only a handful or less that you can determine with any probability what you are going to get. 

Wallstedt has got to be getting frustrated. MAF is clearly in his way for getting any NHL reps. This is on Billy because this was one of Billy's emotional decisions. Wallstedt is no longer getting slow walked he is getting blocked. The clock is ticking and we need to find out if he is the next coming or if he is the next Spencer Knight. 

[MrCheatachu]

43 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Wallstedt has got to be getting frustrated. MAF is clearly in his way for getting any NHL reps. This is on Billy because this was one of Billy's emotional decisions. Wallstedt is no longer getting slow walked he is getting blocked. The clock is ticking and we need to find out if he is the next coming or if he is the next Spencer Knight. 

The Wild already extended him 2x$2.2M...I get that professional athletes are competitors at the highest level, but that contract seems to suggest the team's confidence in him and that he's gonna eat here pretty soon.

If we're in a position where both Flower and GusBus are playing like doo-doo and Wall doesn't get the reigns then we can have a discussion about 'being blocked' but so far, it hasn't been the goaltending that's cost the wild points this season...

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

I called the unforced error of signing Fleury right when they announced the signing. It wasn't a business decision. Anyone saying Fleury was equivalent to the Bus last year wasn't watching close enough. Gus played every hard matchup against the best, got rained on while our defense was down 2 of the top 4 and still ended with about the same save percentage as Fleury.

I still don't understand why they didn't offer Fleury a assistant coach job instead. His stats had been falling off sharply the past two years and he looked like he lost a step. I love Fleury, he is a champ and a great addition to the locker room but he is no longer able to pull on the rope and Billy G needs to be able to have a hard conversation with guys instead of handing out more money to guys who will not contribute to the future. 

Now we are left with Wallstedt likely getting few games and needing to shuttle back and forth to Iowa, which is anything but ideal for him getting settled and focusing on playing the game. 

Billy G just loves to be a contrarian to what has been shown to work in this league. League gets younger and faster, we get older and slower. League ups the level of skill on the ice and we backfill with some grinders. 6.25M on our books this offseason could have bought a pretty decent skill player instead of Trenin, who has looked pretty lack luster thus far.  

[Pewterschmidt]

4 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

The Wild already extended him 2x$2.2M...I get that professional athletes are competitors at the highest level, but that contract seems to suggest the team's confidence in him and that he's gonna eat here pretty soon.

If we're in a position where both Flower and GusBus are playing like doo-doo and Wall doesn't get the reigns then we can have a discussion about 'being blocked' but so far, it hasn't been the goaltending that's cost the wild points this season...

Agree and I think the contract was also to avoid an offer sheet (ie STL > EDM) next summer avoiding a scenario where we wait 5 years for Wallzy to become a #1 and when he finally does he gets stolen from us, or we get ransom'd to overpay him to keep him

[Outskated]

I am very glad that they didn't trade him.  Gus and Wally will be a good tandem next year and only eating up $5.75m in cap space.  

[Outskated]

20 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

I called the unforced error of signing Fleury right when they announced the signing. It wasn't a business decision. Anyone saying Fleury was equivalent to the Bus last year wasn't watching close enough. Gus played every hard matchup against the best, got rained on while our defense was down 2 of the top 4 and still ended with about the same save percentage as Fleury.

I still don't understand why they didn't offer Fleury a assistant coach job instead. His stats had been falling off sharply the past two years and he looked like he lost a step. I love Fleury, he is a champ and a great addition to the locker room but he is no longer able to pull on the rope and Billy G needs to be able to have a hard conversation with guys instead of handing out more money to guys who will not contribute to the future. 

Now we are left with Wallstedt likely getting few games and needing to shuttle back and forth to Iowa, which is anything but ideal for him getting settled and focusing on playing the game. 

Billy G just loves to be a contrarian to what has been shown to work in this league. League gets younger and faster, we get older and slower. League ups the level of skill on the ice and we backfill with some grinders. 6.25M on our books this offseason could have bought a pretty decent skill player instead of Trenin, who has looked pretty lack luster thus far.  

Billy can't let go, it's his biggest downfall as a GM and will likely be his undoing eventually.  Everyone loves Flower, but he is finished.  He'll probably play a few nice games this year, but his job should be to mentor Wally when he's here and keep the bench warm while Gus gets those #1 amount of starts.  

[Pewterschmidt]

4 minutes ago, Outskated said:

I am very glad that they didn't trade him.  Gus and Wally will be a good tandem next year and only eating up $5.75m in cap space.  

And best case scenario both goalies become #1's and one of them becomes a trade asset to return a top six forward

[Pewterschmidt]

3 minutes ago, Outskated said:

his job should be to mentor Wally when he's here

I assume this was the Guerin plan all along.  And to sell Fleury jersey's (keeping Uncle Leo happy) during his farewell season.  50% hockey decision, 50% business decision.

[Enforceror]

Now that all this has been said, Fleury is going to go .960 with 0.740ga the rest of the season. 😝

[mnfaninnc]

I was under the impression that this was going to be close to a 50/50 split, or maybe 33/33/33 split. I wonder about the St. Louis game, should that have been Fleury's? Or, was this going to be The Wall's season debut?

I believe in riding the hot goalie but 3 games into a season does not make a hot or cold goalie, he's just trending that way. A hot goalie is mentioned after about 5 great starts.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

3 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

I was under the impression that this was going to be close to a 50/50 split

I was guessing Gus would be getting 45+ starts and Fleury would get no more than 35. Wall might get 15-20 if he can eat into Fleury's share.

[mnfaninnc]

On 10/18/2024 at 10:25 PM, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I was guessing Gus would be getting 45+ starts and Fleury would get no more than 35. Wall might get 15-20 if he can eat into Fleury's share.

It's hard to do that from Des Moines. Especially when that is your turn to start.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

It's hard to do that from Des Moines. Especially when that is your turn to start.

They are only 5 games in and Fleury has 1 start. I don't think turns were necessarily decided before the season began other than games 1 & 2.

Gus has shown he deserves to be starting regularly. Wallstedt allowed 5 goals in his AHL start.  Fleury allowed 4 regulation goals in his start.  Gus has not allowed more than 2 in any game, and has just one game where he allowed more than 1 goal in regulation.

If they want to make the playoffs, Gus will be getting a majority of the starts when healthy. I don't know exactly how serious Guerin was about trading him, but the idea of going into the season with the oldest goalie in the league and a rookie with just 3 starts always seemed like an awful plan if making the playoffs was something he wanted from his team and it's always been what he says is an expectation.

[Protec]

I don't think MN has any huge issues right now. The still are small and have a lot of Euros statistically but the results have been good. Spurgeon's health and the lack of productivity so far from the role-player vets has been lackluster. 

Overall the Wild have not totally gel'd and the PK was good against CBJ. They just need to keep building chemistry and confidence. The Jets and Blues games were good for that.