The focus for the future of the Minnesota Wild has been locking Kirill Kaprizov to a new contract as he enters the final season of his current deal. While that should be the top concern for Bill Guerin and the rest of the executive staff, there is another player heading into the last year of their deal that has just as much importance to the team as Kaprizov. Starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson is the Wild’s last line of defense on the ice, and he’s set to be an unrestricted free agent following the upcoming season. The Wild need to figure out what his future is with the team.
Acquired back in the summer of 2022 from Ottawa for Cam Talbot, Gustavsson is entering the final season of the three-year bridge contract he signed shortly after the trade. In a league where the top netminders command more than $8 million a year, the 27-year-old Swede has been a bargain with his $3.75 cap hit over the past three seasons.
Yes, there was a shaky 2023-24 season that led to some trade speculations, but Gustavsson rebounded with a strong 2024-25 season that saw him finish sixth in Vezina voting after posting a 31-19-6 record with a .914 SV% and 2.56 GAA. He also played slightly above expectations, posting a 10.85 goals-saved-above-expected number on the season. With the legendary Marc-Andre Fleury settled into the back-up role in his farewell tour of the league, received the bulk of ice time in the crease.
With Fleury comfortably retired (but still receiving interest according to his agent) this is now Gustavsson’s team. After being mentored by the future hall-of-famer for the past few seasons, he is now in more of a rivalry position with his potential back-up, prospect Jesper Wallstedt. Gustavsson acknowledged the difference in the spring, telling the Star Tribune,
“That’s gonna be a change for next year. It’s going to be more of a rivalry again.”
Much like drivers for the same F1 team, there is a duality in a goaltender’s motivation in hockey. Yes, they want to help their teammate because it gives the team the best chance of being successful, but at the same time there is only one net to defend, and the only way to achieve personal (and financial) success is by being the one defending it. Nobody wants to see their back-up take their job.
The Wild can hopefully benefit off of a friendly rivalry (though it’s a fine line between rivalry and a crisis in the crease) as both players push each other to be better. The team will need them to be at their best in order to move up the rankings in a tough Central Division. As a team that is built to keep the scoring low, they can’t afford middling goaltending results on a nightly basis.
Gustavsson showed last year that he was up to the task of being an everyday goaltender. Some of the injury concerns that had plagued him earlier in his career disappeared as he set a career-high in games played, finishing tied for sixth in the league with 58 appearances.
If he wants to secure a long-term deal with the Wild (or on the open market next summer) he needs to show that last season wasn’t the exception to the norm. With another solid season, Gustavsson emerges as the top free-agent goaltender on the free-agent market (will all due apologies to Stuart Skinner). With the salary cap expected to go up another $9 million or so, he could be the prize pick in a bidding war for teams needing to improve their goaltending.
Guerin has to factor that in with any negotiations over the next year. It doesn’t appear that either side is in a rush to get a deal done, but at the same time, if the Wild’s general manager feels that Gustavsson is his long-term solution, the price is only going to go up as the year rolls on.
The leverage isn’t completely in the player’s hands, though. If Wallstedt takes the next step and shows the potential that made him a first-round pick in 2021, then Guerin could have a very valuable trade chip on his hand throughout the season. With his moderately priced contract and a paltry five-team no-trade clause in his contract, there could be a lot of interest in Gustavsson over the next seven-to-eight months.
It’s in everyone’s best interests for Gustavsson to have a strong season. The only way the Wild are going to get past the first round of the playoffs is by keeping the puck out of the net. The key to that is the goaltender, so it’s imperative that Gustavsson to build on the success from last season.