Article: Jesper Wallstedt Has Lept Out Of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire

[Mikki Tuohy]

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[viper3119]

first!

[Citizen Strife]

No more excuses.  One of the best defensive-focused teams in the league, with two absolute wizards in Brodin and Spurgeon.  Add Ek and Foligno up front. Wallstedt shouldn't struggle nearly as much as last year.  If he does, Gus gets all the money he could ask for.

Edited Monday at 01:15 PM by Citizen Strife

[Up North Guy]

2 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

No more excuses.  One of the best defensive-focused teams in the league, with two absolute wizards in Brodin and Spurgeon.  Add Ek and Foligno up front. Wallstedt shouldn't struggle nearly as much as last year.  If he does, Gus gets all the money he could ask for.

Common sense still tells me that Wally will still have some rough periods. It is only natural. My biggest concern is how the coaching staff handles him. Will they play him enough to develop and be sharp? Will they over play him if Gus has a bad game or two? Will they yank him after every bad goal, which all goalies give up now and again? Will he be comfortable reporting injuries that could affect his game? Will he take the blame when the defense fails him? He is young and needs to be recognized for that. Last year shows us that bad communication from the team can have a serious impact on how he plays, like any young goalie.

[mnfaninnc]

I find this article with several factual misrepresentations. The Wall had 2 good A years before last season's debacle. And kudos to UNG for pointing that out. In year 2, his sv% was down from year 1, but if you looked at the more experienced McIntyre, he was light years ahead of him playing behind the same crappy defense that was more rookie A guys than E guys. 

This can be a decent battery of goalies if we can keep Goose for a reasonable price. And, this is not a contract year for The Wall, it is for Goose though. Perhaps I misread the last paragraph, but it seems to indicate The Wall is in a contract year, not Goose. 

I watched the 1st 2 periods of the debut in Dallas and it looked to me like The Wall was having a pretty good game. Everything caved in in the 3rd when a tired, injured, sick team took the ice. But there were a couple of things that he had to learn. 1 was be ready at all times, N players will challenge you by firing when least expected. He had that learning curve in the A too. 2 are N moves he has not seen before. As Pavelski was coming in on The Wall, he drifted towards the short side where you would expect the shot. Pavelski hit the long side with a perfect shot. A guys don't do that.

He rebounded with a couple of good starts against lottery teams later in the season. Will The Wall need to be protected? Yes, to start. He's got to get up to speed on velocity of shots, and moves he's never seen. He will learn. 

Mikki said that Goose's track record wasn't very good until coming to MN. Facts are that his track record showed an every other year type of production. This is why I keep bringing that up, we don't know if he's that type of goalie. He also played behind the Ottawa defense which seemed allergic to actually playing defense. He had problems backing into his net too deep which I believe has been corrected. And, while his stats showed inconsistent play, let's remind everyone that before heading to Ottawa, Guerin saw him as a draft pick. He was the top European goalie in his draft class as a 2nd round pick. 

The Wall has played up in every jr. league he's been in. At 22, I think he'll be decent, probably an above average backup goalie still learning the ropes. Will he be perfect? No. But let him start seeing N shots. This was the development disappointment for keeping Fleury around last season. He essentially missed a year of training. He's learned all he can learn from the A. Now it's time to reset and put a few more bricks in his Wall. 

One last thing. Mikki mentioned that his game is to locate the puck and anticipate where the play is going because he does not have the speed to move. That's a misnomer. The Wall is a very quiet goalie who does rely significantly on his reading and puck finding ability so he can play quiet, but he is very athletic when he needs to be, and can be quick. Don't sell him short on his glove or a quick pad kick out.

[1Brotherbill]

Wallstedt needs to play well when he gets his shot.  For the organization, the fans, and for Wallstedt he needs to play well as a backup and push Gus out of the net.  The reason is if he doesn't play well the Wild will be forced to extend Gus to some ridiculous contract that would financially hamper the team.  Of the top 10 highest paid goalies in the league only 2 have won Stanley Cups.  There is no need to spend 7 million plus on a goalie in this league. 

[Sam]

46 minutes ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Wallstedt needs to play well when he gets his shot.  For the organization, the fans, and for Wallstedt he needs to play well as a backup and push Gus out of the net.  The reason is if he doesn't play well the Wild will be forced to extend Gus to some ridiculous contract that would financially hamper the team.  Of the top 10 highest paid goalies in the league only 2 have won Stanley Cups.  There is no need to spend 7 million plus on a goalie in this league. 

Right on, brother.

[mnfaninnc]

13 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Wallstedt needs to play well when he gets his shot.  For the organization, the fans, and for Wallstedt he needs to play well as a backup and push Gus out of the net.  The reason is if he doesn't play well the Wild will be forced to extend Gus to some ridiculous contract that would financially hamper the team.  Of the top 10 highest paid goalies in the league only 2 have won Stanley Cups.  There is no need to spend 7 million plus on a goalie in this league.

I read a national rumors site that was transcribing Russo and LaPanta. They are suggesting that $5.5-$6.5m is the going rate for a starting goaltender. Their thinking was that if you get ahead of it (I assume this is a contract extension) and you get a team friendly deal in this neighborhood, that could benefit the team. But, what then do you to with The Wall, they asked, if he plays well?

The Wall makes $2.2m for the next 2 seasons. He could easily be bridged after that, and if he stays the backup, he wouldn't be too expensive. The thing I think is best is if you resign Goose in the range above, maybe the lower part of that range and don't give him a designation. If The Wall gets to where I think he can get to, and be a premier #1 (top 8), then maybe you have to trade out Goose. However, the odds of The Wall becoming that in the next 3 seasons is low. 

I think both would make a very good battery to have and if you can get Goose under $6m (I've said $5m before, but I do believe there is some capflation I have not accounted for) I think you can run the 2 of them out there under $10m for a few years. 2 very solid 'tenders can be very good come playoff time. They would be fresh too. I would think a bridge for The Wall comes in somewhere around where Goose is now, maybe $4m with capflation. With a cap number at $113.5m for the team, I would think keeping the goaltending number under $10m would be a win, and that's how far down the road we're looking.

[TCMooch]

Before last season he was seen as any easy Starter #1 goalie in the league. Now he's being written off. I hope he's able to really bounce back and become that future #1 Goalie he was projected to be when drafted.

[NoJoSux]

Didn't it take Gus a handful of years to get good enough and be consistent enough to become an NHL starter? With rough patches too after being a top goaltending prospect out of Sweden? Taken in 2016 as the top Swedish goaltender in the draft, Gus spent at least 2-3 years in the minors and ended up in Minnesota on somewhat of a fluke deal tied to GMBG's opportunistic trade.

Wallstedt needs to keep working hard and getting better. Unless you're MAF who had the ability to recover from his mistakes mentally and continue to be very good from the moment he was drafted, it's gonna take time. Wally was a great prospect but Brackett loves his Euros and taking a goalie first round sets up an expectation. MN missed some good ones in that draft. I hope Wallstedt, Lambos, Peart, Bankier, and Masters all work out for the Wild cause otherwise it's just piling up even more evidence Brackett is NOT a guru. Rather is was media BS all along as we suspected. 2020 & 2021 are examples we can look at to criticize the strategy. Until proven wrong, these are some totally relevant questions. Watching players like Lundell, Johnston, Knies, Blake, from 2021 and others the Wild could have easily picked in 2020 it really makes ya wonder... 

[Pewterschmidt]

39 minutes ago, NoJoSux said:

I hope Wallstedt, Lambos, Peart, Bankier, and Masters all work out for the Wild cause otherwise it's just piling up even more evidence Brackett is NOT a guru. Rather is was media BS all along as we suspected.

⛔TRUTH BOMB⛔

[Pewterschmidt]

40 minutes ago, NoJoSux said:

I hope Wallstedt, Lambos, Peart, Bankier, and Masters all work out for the Wild

This would be a whole lot of whiff's

[Will D. Ness]

2 hours ago, NoJoSux said:

Rather is was media BS all along as we suspected.

What isn't media BS?  The guy's strategy was BPA which usually meant passed over skill due to lack of size.  It's not a bad strategy but to call him a "guru" is just clickbait.

[raithis]

3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

⛔TRUTH BOMB⛔

You want a truth bomb? 

0 teams in the league have a 100% success rate on picks.

Anyone who lists a bunch of draft picks and says that they ALL have to work out is not living is reality, and piling on in that assertion is even worse.

Saying that 3rd and 4th round players have to work out when few of those players ever become anything more than career AHLers is even more stupid than labeling Brackett as some kind of guru.

 

[Pewterschmidt]

34 minutes ago, raithis said:

0 teams in the league have a 100% success rate on picks.

Agree.  And I didn't say the bar was 100% success.  I realize that the draft is nearly a crap shoot.  There's science to the art (see: Dallas who consistently finds winners), but there's alot of art too.

 

37 minutes ago, raithis said:

Saying that 3rd and 4th round players have to work out when few of those players ever become anything more than career AHLers is even more stupid than labeling Brackett as some kind of guru.

I realize the odds of 3rd and 4th rounders making the NHL are very low (<10%?).  My intent is to counter the click baiters and fan's who repeat the "top draft class" rabble.  The fanbase is beginning to catch on as more of Brackett's picks are traded away or not re-signed, so reality is beginning to over-take the mirage.  

[raithis]

22 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Agree.  And I didn't say the bar was 100% success.  I realize that the draft is nearly a crap shoot.  There's science to the art (see: Dallas who consistently finds winners), but there's alot of art too.

 

I realize the odds of 3rd and 4th rounders making the NHL are very low (<10%?).  My intent is to counter the click baiters and fan's who repeat the "top draft class" rabble.  The fanbase is beginning to catch on as more of Brackett's picks are traded away or not re-signed, so reality is beginning to over-take the mirage.  

Then why not say any of that? 

Simply responding "Truth Bomb" to a post that did say that "all" the prospects listed must work out implies you are in agreeing with that statement completely.  There was no selective quoting, so how am I or anyone else to understand your intent as other than full agreement with what was quoted?  You may have meant more, but by throwing out a "click-bait" type of reply, your reply was just more rabble.

The follow-up comment mentioned a lot of whiffs, but that just made it seem like you also thought everyone listed had to work out.  EVERY team has a lot of drafted players that never go anywhere, so I don't really see the issue if some are traded or not re-signed.

My main issue with Brackett is that he seems to have a bit of tunnel vision regarding the types of players he's looking for, and so he sometimes takes a player who is more of a project that another because they fit his ideal better.  It doesn't mean those players won't work out, but it does mean that some of them may take longer to develop and may not help us have a diverse enough skill set on the team to match up as well with a lot of teams in the long run.  It also means that we are more likely to trade out a few of those players because we don't need so many of the same type of player.

A lot of his picks are still getting to the league, so it's not clear that many of them are whiffs.  And while there are a few I would have rather seen go differently, I don't know whether the player the Wild picked won't end up being better.  I suspect the rate will end up being about average with the league once more time has passed. 

I wouldn't call Brackett a guru.  He's done nothing to show he's one of the best in the league.  Having a top-rated prospect pool doesn't mean you can make a good team with the players you've picked.  That said, I don't think he's one of the worst either.  Maybe slightly above average.  He'd definitely get more points from me if he wasn't so prone to picking a particular type of player with similar play styles.

I think mnfaninnc is right that Stramel was Guerin interjecting his wants into the equation.  It would not shock me in the least if the times that Brackett has seemed to deviate from his type of players were mostly because Guerin liked a player or liked what another member of the draft team was proposing.