Playing goaltender in hockey is one of the great high-risk occupations in all the world. You are paid to put your body and all of your extremities in the path of a frozen rubber disk that is often traveling at speeds of 100 mph or more. And the most obvious way that your life gets even more difficult is if you fail to block that rock-hard missile with your body. Somehow, it hurts worse if you don’t get hit.

For the past decade-plus, Jesper Wallstedt has thrived on the ability to have pucks hit him rather than slip over the goal line and into the net. His puck-stopping skills made him a first-round NHL draft pick and had him anointed as the Minnesota Wild’s goalie of the immediate future as recently as September this year.

Then he was sent down to the Wild’s American Hockey League’s team in Iowa, and for a time, the pucks stopped hitting him. Wallstedt was winless in his first four starts in Iowa. In one game, he allowed seven goals. In another, the opponent scored eight.

“The start I had in Iowa wasn’t proving that I belonged here at that time. But last couple weeks have felt way better. I’ve been speaking with a lot of sports psychologists and stuff to try to get my mind back and in the right spot,” Wallstedt said on Sunday, after making his NHL debut for this season, and stopping 24 shots in a 3-2 loss to Vegas.

“Obviously, when you’re on an all-time low, it feels like there’s no way out and you keep asking yourself what you’re doing. But I was always trusting my game. I felt like my game was in the right spot. I knew I made the team out of camp. I knew there was something there to build from, but it was all in my head. My head wasn’t in the right spot.”

In his most recent start for Iowa, Wallstedt got a shutout. A few days later, while he was prepping for a road game versus the Rockford (Ill.) IceHogs, he was instead rushed to a Chicago airport and flown to Minnesota for his fourth career NHL game, filling in for regular Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who is sidelined temporarily with a lower-body injury.

For a time, it looked like Wallstedt would be staying in Minnesota right out of training camp, as the Wild briefly carried three goalies. But with Gustavsson grabbing the top job, and decorated veteran Marc-Andre Fleury moving into a backup role, it made more sense for Wallstedt to go to Iowa and get some playing time. He admitted on Sunday that he initially had questions about the demotion, and his surprising on-ice struggles were mostly mental rather than physical.

“I think the beginning right after I got sent down I think it was more that the plan changed that I was expecting. But after that, you just gotta drop that behind,” he said. “I think after that it was more ‘OK, why am I not saving a puck in games? Why am I giving up seven goals? Why am I giving up eight goals?’ It was just like I couldn’t save a puck. It was like I hadn’t played hockey before. It didn’t feel like my game was wrong, but it felt like my head wasn’t there and then I’m the one that gives myself the hardest criticism. So, I think I was just pushing myself down the rabbit hole as well.”

The comeback began with the help of Iowa goalie coach Richard Bachman and Wild goalie coach Freddie Chabot, both of whom worked with Wallstedt to get his game back on track. While he remains the Wild’s third option this season behind a healthy Gustavsson and Fleury on spot duty in the final season of his career, the Wild coach liked what he saw from the 22-year-old Wallstedt in the game against Vegas.

“I thought he was good. I thought he made some saves,” John Hynes said. “He looked comfortable in the net, which I think is always important.”

All three of his starts for the Wild last season were in road games, where he went 2-1-0. Wallstedt admitted that playing at home for the Wild for the first time was a fun experience, hearing his name called for the starting lineups and hearing applause when he stopped pucks.

“I’ve only played preseason games in here. and yeah. it was awesome,” he said. “The fans were super supportive, just hearing them cheer when you make a save and when they name the lineup, it’s super awesome, and that’s something I hope to do a couple more times.”

All in a good day’s work for a guy who’s getting paid to have frozen chunks of rubber hit his body.

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