John Shipley: Wild’s once simple goaltending plan has become complicated
Bill Guerin’s offseason will be a lot less complicated if his best goaltender this season decides to retire.
It’s not that the Wild general manager is eager to lose Marc-Andre Fleury, it’s that re-signing the 20-year veteran would suddenly give the Wild a surfeit of goaltending with Fleury, Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, who earned his first NHL victory this week with a shutout at Chicago.
Fleury said last week he is more open than ever to playing another season, even as he reiterated his pledge to make that decision after the season is over. And while he said he’s open to playing elsewhere, he prefers to stay in Minnesota.
If he did, that would give the Wild three goaltenders under contract for next season, two of them NHL-grade veterans and one who, after two full seasons at Iowa, seems ready for a promotion.
Some of that will depend on how Wallstedt, 21, performs in whatever starts he can make before the March 18 season finale against Seattle at Xcel Energy Center. If Fleury is available in 2024-25, the Wild need to know how NHL-ready Wallstedt really is.
His first start with Minnesota was something of a disaster, a 7-0 loss at Dallas in January that wasn’t entirely his fault. He was a lot better in his second start, a 4-0 victory at Chicago last Sunday.
“We’ll go game-to-game with this and work through it,” Hynes said in Chicago. “I don’t want to commit either way, but I would lean in the direction where he’s going to get another game, for sure.”
That could be as early as Thursday in Las Vegas. Eliminated from playoff contention by a 5-2 loss at Colorado on Tuesday, the Wild are looking ahead. On Wednesday, they called up 2021 first-round pick Liam Ohgren, presumably to make his NHL debut.
Wallstedt was 21-19-3 with a 2.76 goals-against average and .908 save percentage this season for an Iowa team that sent a lot of its veteran players to the NHL.
“I think I’m stronger mentally and know what I need to do to prepare myself — what I need to do during the game during the periods to keep my mind fresh,” he said after making 24 saves against the Blackhawks. “(There was) a lot of work I put in, and I felt it out there. I felt much more in control.”
When this season started, it was presumed that Fleury would retire after the season, wipe $3.5 million off the books and make room for Wallstedt to back up Gustavsson, who is playing the first season of a three-year, $11.25 million contract extension he earned by going 22-9-7 with a 2.10 GAA and .931 save percentage in his first full NHL season.
Wallstedt’s $925,000 NHL salary would shave about $2.75 million off the Wild’s payroll next season, a substantial savings for a team that still will be dealing with $14.7 million in dead salary cap next season, the NHL’s punishment for buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in 2021.
Even if Fleury took a pay cut, it would certainly be more than $925,000.
It’s not unreasonable to expect a 21-year-old to start a third season in the AHL, but Wallstedt’s rookie contract expires after next season, making him a restricted free agent, and the team has high hopes for the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Swede.
Gustavsson hasn’t been great this season — 19-18-4 with a 2.74 GAA and .916 save percentage — but he was last year and will turn 26 in June with two more years on his deal.
Pairing Gustavsson with Wallstedt is a legitimate plan, but the Wild proved to be thin throughout the lineup this season, and Guerin must wonder whether Gustavsson could fetch a top-six forward or top-four blue liner in a trade.
The fact remains that Fleury has been better this season, and while he’ll turn 40 in November, you wouldn’t know it from just watching him play.
Since Jan. 6, Fleury is 11-5-3 with a 2.68 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage and two shutouts in 21 appearances. Since returning from a lower body injury on Jan. 13, Gustavsson is 9-9-2 with a 3.28 GAA and .894 save percentage.
It’s a quandary for Guerin if Fleury decides to play in 2024-25, especially when considering the mentorship Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup champion who has played in 169 playoff games — would offer Wallstedt.
It would be a lot easier, if perhaps not as fruitful, if Fleury decided to retire.
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