We sometimes need more time to write up our Game Notes. We like to expand on a few topics from each game so here are the Game Notes from Tuesday night’s Wild game against the New York Islanders:
Game Notes
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Hop on the Gus Bus*, everyone!
*Get a Shirt, too? Well, I can’t find them so… uhh… Sorry!
We did find pic from MNW Young Guns on Twitter, though:
Minnesota Wild G Filip Gustavsson doesn’t look like a backup goaltender now, does he?
On the season, he is now 16-8-3 with a 2.46 Goals Against Average(GAA) and a .930 Save %…
If you take away his first 6 games when he went 1-4-1 with a 3.20 GAA & a .901 Save%, he’s 15-4-2 with a 1.86 GAA & a .939 Save%! Uhh… that is ‘tending to the cage, ‘Puckers and WE LIKE THAT!!!
Where is the Bus going? Wherever it’s going, it will be done calmly without letting very much get past it and Wild fans are likely to follow.
Hop on the Bus, Gus! You don’t need to discuss much.
How many people thought the July trade for Gus was questionable when they gave up a solid starting-caliber goaltender in Cam Talbot straight up for a young backup goalie who had yet to really make a mark in the NHL or even in the AHL up to that point?
Filip Gustavsson’s AHL Statistics
It is common to hear an NHL GM say it takes time for goaltenders to develop. Add in that a goalie may come from a different country and thus a different style of hockey and that only increases that development time.
Why does it take so long for a goalie to develop?
We’re glad you asked. So when goalies are drafted, they are likely a starting goaltender and have obviously played very well to get on the radar of NHL Central Scouting & every NHL team.
Filip Gustavsson was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2016 NHL Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins who had Bill Guerin as their Assistant General Manager. He was also the General Manager of their AHL-affiliate & started his management career as their Player Development Coach. So…the odds are very good that Mr. Guerin knew who he was trading for when he acquired Filip Gustavsson.
The Draft is just the beginning of the journey. In the case of Gus, he reached the top professional hockey league in Sweden in his draft year as an 18-year-old.* He played just 6 games. The next season he played just 15 games and then 22 games the following season so he had to learn how to be a backup goaltender and to always be ready to play.
*What were you doing when you were 18? I was still dreaming of a Stanley Cup and the Minnesota North Stars went on a magical playoff run & had a 2-1 series lead before losing 3 straight to Mario & the Penguins. Ouch!
At the end of the 2017-18 season, he came over to North America. As you can see, it took him some time to figure out the North American style of puck. In his 3rd season (2nd full season), with 3 goalies injured, Ottawa called him up for his NHL debut and he earned his 1st NHL win and showed that he can play in the best league in the world. He looked like he had figured out this new style of play. He had a really good season in the minors in 2021-22 so he got more time in Ottawa’s net but it didn’t look as good from a statistics standpoint.
If we look at his game log from that season, it paints a picture of inconsistency but it’s also unclear if that inconsistency is more from the team side or from Gus. It’s obviously a bit of both but this is also from an Ottawa Senators team that hasn’t finished above 6th place in their division since the 2016-17 season.
With all of that being said, Gus has turned the corner to being a very good NHL goalie and has given Wild General Manager Bill Guerin an interesting dilemma with his goalie situation.
Gus is a restricted free agent (RFA) after this season. Has he raised his value so much or that he could be traded in the offseason? Or maybe needs to be traded to save cap room?
The Wild do have G Jesper Wallstedt in the AHL but he & the Iowa Wild had a terrible February and Bill Guerin has been very consistent in saying prospects will show when they are ready so he’d likely have no problem having Jesper at least start another season in the AHL.
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Freddy & the Hands of G!
How many times has Wild F Freddy Gaudreau won a game as the last man in the shootout? Or extended it so someone else can win it? The answer is 6, 5 times his goal either ended the game or his goal ended being the winning goal because his goalie made the save for the win and 1 time where he extended the shootout to allow Matt Boldy to score the game-winner!
He currently leads the league in shootout goals with 6. That’s pretty huge since every one of those goals got the Wild the extra point. Freddy didn’t get a point for himself with those goals but he got a point for his team with those goals!
He is an Unrestricted Free Agent after the season. He’s been a valuable part of the Wild during his 1+ seasons. It will also be interesting to see how much of a raise he gets. Will he get something similar to what F Barclay Goodrow received from the New York Rangers in 2021? 6 years & $21.85M?
We’ll guess 4 years, $14M for an Annual Average Value (AAV) of $3.25M. Hopefully, that will end up being a little high with the Wild’s cap situation.
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Help is on the Wayyyy!
Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin was busy trying to help his team score more goals while they were trying to keep winning so they can keep moving up the standings.
The Wild GM made two trades yesterday. He acquired Fs Marcus Johansson & Gustav Nyquist for a 2024 3rd-round pick and a 2023 5th-round pick (which they received when they sent prospect F Andrei Svetlakov as part of the Boston trade for Dmitry Orlov & Garnet Hathaway.)
The Wild Acquire F Marcus Johansson
The Wild Acquire F Gustav Nyquist
Both players bring offense and skating ability. It sounds like Nyquist has a little more to give but he’s out with a shoulder injury so he might not be able to help the Wild make the playoffs.
When we first heard of the Marcus Johansson trade, we wondered if he could be flipped to another team for a player with a little more talent. Or could they both be moved for a Brock Boeser? Would they have to add in a Jordan Greenway, a pick and a prospect to get the Vancouver Canuckleheads to retain part of Boeser’s salary since he still has 2 years of a $6.65M cap hit remaining and the Wild currently have just $9.335M of cap space available for next season.
Can they go to Vancouver tonight and beat them then take Brock Boeser to Calgary with them?
It might come down to if the Wild think some of their prospects will be able to make the jump next season. Sammy Walker? Adam Beckman? Marco Rossi? Nic Petan? Steven Fogarty?
Or can they find a cheaper option like when they signed Freddy Gaudreau?
They have 11 free agents (6 Unrestricted, 5 Restricted) according to CapFriendly:
Forwards (7):
Ryan Reaves (UFA) – $1.75M
Freddy Gaudreau (UFA) – $1.2M
Marcus Johansson (UFA) – $1.1M
Sam Steel (RFA) – $825K
Brandon Duhaime (RFA) – $750K
Mason Shaw (RFA) – $750K
Gustav Nyquist (UFA) – $2.75M
Defensemen (3):
Matt Dumba (UFA) – $6M
Calen Addison (RFA) – $795K
Dakota Mermis (UFA) – $750K
Goalies (1):
Filip Gustavsson – $787.5K
It’s easy to say they won’t bring back Ryan Reaves, Marcus Johansson & Sam Steel but maybe they’d try to since they’ll likely need to find some inexpensive options.
Sammy Walker looked good in his time with the big club so you’d think he could take a spot. Are Beckman & Rossi ready to make the jump? There’s no way of knowing until they do. Beckman also looked good & got better in his short stints & 9 total games with the Wild this season.
It’s going to be fun to see…
What the Wild & Billy G…
Do after 2022-23!
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