Article: 2026 Free Agent Filip Gustavsson's True Value Remains Murky

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[mnfaninnc]

This is the most important part of this article:

Quote

However, at the same time, a team needs a solid, reliable goaltender, and those aren't always easy to find.

I think a competent average goalie is pretty easy to find. Goose is pretty much in the Markstrom class somewhere between $5-6m without capflation. We are spending $6m on our goalies total next season, which I believe will be tremendous value. 

Even with capflation, Goose is not an $8m+ goalie. He's just not that good. The good news is that Goose also has played behind porous defense and knows how lonely that is. In fact, when his ELC was going to end, he thought he'd be headed back to Sweden to just play there. He knows how good this defense is, especially since he had a year when they were deeply hurt. 

I think he'll sign a team friendly deal to stay here. I also think he likes it here. I could see changing the budget to $8.2m for goalies in 2026-27. I would also encourage it to be a 5 year deal and no more. 3 would be better.

I'm still projecting that The Wall will overtake him in a couple of years and we'll either have to trade him out (so cut down on the designations), or hand the reins over to him next season. The Wall could be elite. Both goalies were trained in the same system. Both goalies are quiet. What sets them apart?

Puck tracking. Goose sometimes looses the puck in traffic and lets in the occasional stinker that he just never saw. The Wall, according to his scouting reports tracks the puck really well, is slightly bigger in build so pucks have a better tendency to just hit him, and is supposed to have better anticipation. He doesn't look too athletic because he's so quiet, but he can move when necessary. 

I like having the tandem together for a few years, but Goose is probably best as a 1A, not a true 1. 

[Enforceror]

What doesn't make sense is, if our defense is so stellar, why is our PK in the shitter? I'm not sure how many goals I saw last year right off a lost PK faceoff. Quite a few. What does that say about goaltending? 

 

[SkolWild73]

Always a tough call when it comes to paying a goaltender.  How good is the goaltender and how much of his success is the product of the system that plays in front of him?  I like Gus and feel he is a top 10 goaltender, but at the same time, worry about paying him $8M+. 

The goalie contracts are kind of weird.  Besides the Rangers giving Shesterkin $11.5M starting this year, the next three highest goalie contracts were all signed back in 2018-2020.  No other goalie contract has went above $8.5M in the past couple of years, and that includes Hellebuyck, Oettinger and other top goaltenders.  

Feels to me the minimum for Gus would be $6.5M that Dostal got with a maximum of $8.25 that Oettinger, Swayman, Ullmark and Sorokin received.  Hopefully something in the middle.