Filip Gustavsson

But it is a major concern that I have.

I think if this defense falls apart, and also Philip Gustavsson still recovering from his hip surgery, you're also then putting a lot of pressure on your goal tending to try to fill in the gaps where your defense maybe creates some holes.

Yeah.

And so I don't want to sit here and sound the alarm and be doom and gloom on this Wednesday morning before the season, but it changes a lot of things I think this year.

So Walstead's the, is the one that really jumps out to me a- as, as the guy that, that made things happen quickly.

And, and I think that, you know, with Gustavsson there in Minnesota, they even took their time a little bit with him, too, and they had that luxury as well.

So, so it is, it is difficult to project goaltenders early.

That's why you often see these guys-

Had a terrific rookie season last year for the Minnesota Wild.

Gustavsson's dealing with a, a hip injury, not gonna start the season on the, the roster for Minnesota, at least not the starting roster.

So I think, you know, if you wanted to bypass some of these goalies, you can get involved with the Wallstedt maybe in the fifth, a Hofer in the ninth.

I think that's a, a decent one-two punch, uh, a little bit of value there.

Mm-hmm.

And so it's either Gustavsson or Wallstedt that's gonna go.

Gustavsson, I think, has a little bit of, of, of trade protection in his deal, and he's signed through '31.

And so, you know, this organization still has needs, uh, roster-wise, and they're not gonna pay both goalies.

And so if they're gonna be proactive about it before he could potentially be offer sheeted, they're gonna trade Wallstedt.

And then on the back end, Brock Faber, right? Uh, you keep Quinn Hughes in the fold.

And they've got a one-two punch in net, right, with, with Philip Gustavsson and, and, and Jesper Wallstedt, who I think can really come into his own and, and push, uh, for that number one job and, and maybe even, like, have a Vezina-worthy season with the team in front of him.

So I think the Minnesota Wild's, I, I think Billy G will make sure if, if they have a inkling that this could be the year that they could win a cup, they hang on to Quinn Hughes and still are one of the best teams in the NHL.

And this is probably the year to push the chips in.

Mm-hmm.

When Philip Gustavsson was on the second-last year of that $4.3 million deal, they said, "Who wants him for free?" Called 31 other GMs, or 30.

Yeah, no, it would've been 31 other GMs, and said, "Who wants him?" And everyone went, "Ew, yuck.

No, thank you." And then a year later, they went, "Boy, Walstead kinda had a bad year in the American League," and Gustavsson had a great bounce-back year.