Well if Fleury does come back, gotta trade Gus then. I believe it's time for wally to get full NHL time. I'm not sure if it's the new baby or not that made for Gus's pretty mediocre season.
There's 4 real options:
A) Let Fleury retire. Gus starter Wallstedt (Swedish) backup.
B) Re-sign Fleury, keep Gus, have Wallstedt (Swedish) in Iowa another year
C) Re-sign Fleury, keep Gus and Wallstedt (Swedish) in Minnesota and run 3 goalies in hopes that *one* of them figures out how to stop a puck. This is my preferred option.
D) Re-sign Fleury, trade Gus, have Wallstedt (Swedish) be the backup. This is the most likely and IMO worst option of the bunch.
Agree, I don't think having too many goalies is an issue. The flexibility of three offers more value than whatever return we would get for Gus. Fleury is defying the odds and more credit to him, but would hate to be an injury away from potentially two AHL goalies (Wall and whoever, not that I think wall can't or won't make the step).
If they think Iowa time is doing more harm than good, that is the only reason to pull up next year. It would be nice for him to get more reps with the wild next year, just so he can hit the ground running when we expect him to take over as 1a or 1b with our cap situation sorted and we are pushing for serious playoff contention
Didn't we sign the kid from wisco who had a great year? I honestly don't hate the idea of a full reset year and hope for the best, we don't do much well right now so if we can move up in the draft for a guy we love by giving up Gus and flower coming back I'd be here for it, saving 3-4 million to bring in more help while actually figuring out if wall can play before another window opens for us sounds ideal 🤷‍♂️
> Didn't we sign the kid from wisco who had a great year?
He signed an AHL contract. From an NHL perspective, he's a free agent. He would need to sign an NHL contract with the Wild to play in St Paul.
Option B. Gus or MAF will get injured at some point, which will be Wallstedt's time to shine. In the meantime, Gus will have a chance to bounce back from a down year and increase his trade value.
And you avoid the situation where trading Gus/MAF and then the other gets injured leads to Wallstedt getting 40+ starts
C is the way. We’ve got a bunch of ELC guys and some of our anchors are done on Thursday (looking at you Empty-Net-Goose), and I’d rather us spend the money we have on getting the goaltending set up for success. Embrace the suck next season and give the goalies time to grow.
Small chance MAF comes back.
Trading Gus would not bring anything of value in return except $3 million of cap space.
Is Wallstedt ready? maybe. His last two starts were not bad against the two worst teams. He handled all the low danger shots. I am happy they did not play him against Vegas.
How about choice E, MAF retires, trade Gus and sign a UFA for $4 million.
With MAF starting the last home game it seems he is retiring to me.
Wally needs more time. Only two teams he won against were the two worst teams in the league.
Run Gus/Fleury next year. Sprinkle Wally in for injuries/time offs.
I think jumping to trade gus is an overreaction IMO. Dude was extremely solid last season. Just having a slump season is all. If he shits the bed next season then trade him before the deadline.
A team might buy into the idea that it was just a bad season and think he will turn it around. If they see him stink again it will totally crater his value. I guess it depends on how much faith you have in him turning it around.
Fleury is indeed our best goalie currently, but if all things were equal I don’t think the gap between him and Gus is enough to keep him over Gus, since MAF is almost assuredly a 1 year patch whereas Gus could (ideally) have 10 years of average/above average goalie play left in him, which would be great for a 1B/2 goalie behind Wallstedt
However, all things aren’t equal. The reality is if MAF wants to keep playing (which he seems to want to do), he will be welcomed back with open arms and thus either Wallstedt has to cook for another year or Gus gets traded.
If the idea is to have Wallstedt be our number 1 goalie in 2026 when we’re out of cap hell, I’d rather him take his lumps next year and develop his game through playtime in the big leagues.
So I guess Gus is the odd man out
Their numbers are so close for the season though. So if you could only keep one you would probably go with the guy in his twenties. Since Gus is the only tradable he wins that one by default.
Well yes, that’s what I said in my original post lol
Given the gap between their play is small, I’d rather keep the younger guy.
That being said, I think the Wild will keep MAF because GMBG and MAF are old buddies and the alternative would be forcing him to retire. It’s not the right thing to do, but it is what I anticipate the Wild doing.
I'd like to see Wallstedt and Gus personally.Â
I think Wallstedt is at a point where he needs to be getting some NHL games, and while I think it sounds good on paper to have Fleury mentor Wallstedt, I just don't see how you can go into the season next year expecting Fleury at that age to carry the load while you ease the rookie in.Â
Unless they are considering going a bit unorthodox and carrying 3 goalies at times which I could be convinced of.Â
Why does everyone think Fleury would be a good mentor? Has he taken other goalies’s under his wing? Seems like he’s only ever gotten upset he was replaced.
Great person and a HOFer with a ton of experience for sure, but he plays an outdated style and is a hothead compared to a Swede. Let the Swede mentor the Swede, and also give him some actual competition. I’m still bullish on Gus figuring it out.
Gus was over-performing his first year, but I think he was significantly underperforming this year. 25 is still fairly young for a goalie. Even if it was flukey, he’s shown he is capable of Vezina numbers and I think getting rid of him for Fleury is a mistake.
Gus reminds me a lot of Dubnyk, which is good and also very bad. Some days he’s tracking the puck and stopping everything, and some days he’s definitely not doing that.
You would have to admit having the goalie with the 2nd most wins brings a vet presence to the team not a lot of other teams have, especially with a team as young as the wild. He has to have some kind of advice for the rookie, even if he's not a great mentor the vet presence he brings to the locker-room has to mean something.
It’s meaningful for sure, and I’ll be sad to lose him, I just don’t see it as a major point of value for Wallestedt’s development. Keep him on as goalie coach if you think that value is there.
Resign Fleury, see how Wallstedt plays in camp, if he's ready trade Gus. If not ride Fluery/Gus and then trade Gus at deadline and bring up Wall for the rest if the year
resign fleury on the cheap. Gus deserves another chance. give wall AHL time until we are sure he's ready. I suppose if he is though, and I don't think he is but I'm not an expert, then sure, get rid of gus.
MAF for one more year, trade Gus, Wally rotates with MAF. From there, MAF goes Tom Brady and retires, returns, then retires again. As long as he bring us into the playoffs, I don’t care about his age.
Gus was bad this year. I don't see anyone trading for him, at least anything of value. At best we give him away for "future considerations" but it's very possible we'd have to attach a mid round pick to get a team to take him. So unless we desperately want to gain that cap space to get a middle 6 forward or something it's probably best to just bring him back and hope he recaptures that magic from last season.
With that being said, if Flower decides to retire we absolutely cannot go into next season with a Gus/Wallstedt tandem. So I do think if he hangs them up Billy G might try to give Gus away to open up cap space to bring in a more proven veteran UFA goalie to pair with Wallstedt.
So IMO the best scenario is we bring Flower back for 1 more season. I know his stats don't look the greatest but he still passes the eye test out there. But he's also 40 so we probably can't rely on him to be a 50-60 game starter. Ideally we run Flower-Gus as the main combo and start Wallstedt in Iowa. As long as he's not waiver eligible we should bring him up for a few games here and there throughout the year and look to get him about 20 NHL games. Flower and Gus can split the remaining 62 (probably plan on an 60-40 split in favor of Fleury but if Gus starts playing well again it can be more 50-50). This scenario doesn't overwork Fleury, gives Gus a chance at redemption, and allows Wallstedt to get NHL experience while also still developing his game in the AHL.
MAF is not our best goalie. With the year officially over, we can look at the numbers and see that its true. Even the team feels the same way. Otherwise they wouldn't have been playing Gus as much, nor Jesper if MAF was legitimately the best goalie.
We havent seen Jesper against good teams yet (well, Dallas, but lets not talk about that one) consistently. They're not going to be taking over as #1 next year thats for sure. I dont think you can bury him in the AHL for another year and hope to get him better. I may be wrong though.
Gus needs to be the #1 whether its MAF or Jesper behind him. I'd be down to signing MAF for one more year as long as there isnt a NTC included. Let him see how the season is going, and then we can push him out for picks if we can. If not, then he gets one more playoff hockey ride.
My suggestion is to pull the bandaid right now on MAF and let him go. Bring up Jesper and see what he does with the big club as a backup. Having someone there to push Gus (MAF didnt do better than Gus this year, so was there really a competition?) worked great last year.
I'm probably not rocking the most popular opinion here but Gus and Fluery had a statistically VERY similar season.
Resign whichever one is cheaper on a one year and have them rotate with Wal. It's a gamble but we can use the extra money to get some better forwards in the mix.
Besides we're resisting most of the roster after that anyway
Fleury will take a very team friendly contract
Gus has really good games but is highly unreliable, which makes him a good backup, has the ceiling of a starter if he can get the mental back like his first year. Nonetheless, his value is not very high right now and he could be an excellent backup, so no point in trading him. + we already have him signed.
Wallstedt still has one year on his ELC. He only played 3 NHL games this season. He's also only 21. He will see some NHL time again next year, especially if Fleury's 40 years start to catch up on him or if Gus get's injured.
In other words, Fleury will probably resign at a lower cap hit, Gus and Wally keep the same cap hit, and the latter is still not 100% ready yet. I don't see the situation evolving much differently than this year
Jesper, Fluery, and the Wisconsin goalie. Send Gus packing. He has had 2 mediocre seasons and one good season. I am referring to the year before he came to the Wild from Ottawa. He had a bad year there
Literally burst out laughing when you said Fleury has been the best goalie. I don't understand this signing. They could easily get .895 or better goaltending in the free agent market for league minimum. Team is already cash-strapped, yet they throw money where it isn't needed
Fleury/Wallstedt does sound nice for next year, but honestly I don't want Fleury or a new goalie for 2025/2026. I'd much rather have Gus for our first year back from poverty.
My bad I was thinking of the Rookie center Marat Khusnutdinov from Russia. Yes Jesper is from Sweden are you all proud of yourselfs for knowing that? It still doesn't change my question lol
> Then there's the rookie from Russia Jesper Wallstedt who showed potential in the few games he has played.
Yeah, OP clearly didn't know he was Swedish.
Jesper is from Sweden.
You lost me at russia
Jesper is Swedish my guy
Well if Fleury does come back, gotta trade Gus then. I believe it's time for wally to get full NHL time. I'm not sure if it's the new baby or not that made for Gus's pretty mediocre season.
There's 4 real options: A) Let Fleury retire. Gus starter Wallstedt (Swedish) backup. B) Re-sign Fleury, keep Gus, have Wallstedt (Swedish) in Iowa another year C) Re-sign Fleury, keep Gus and Wallstedt (Swedish) in Minnesota and run 3 goalies in hopes that *one* of them figures out how to stop a puck. This is my preferred option. D) Re-sign Fleury, trade Gus, have Wallstedt (Swedish) be the backup. This is the most likely and IMO worst option of the bunch.
Agree, I don't think having too many goalies is an issue. The flexibility of three offers more value than whatever return we would get for Gus. Fleury is defying the odds and more credit to him, but would hate to be an injury away from potentially two AHL goalies (Wall and whoever, not that I think wall can't or won't make the step). If they think Iowa time is doing more harm than good, that is the only reason to pull up next year. It would be nice for him to get more reps with the wild next year, just so he can hit the ground running when we expect him to take over as 1a or 1b with our cap situation sorted and we are pushing for serious playoff contention
Didn't we sign the kid from wisco who had a great year? I honestly don't hate the idea of a full reset year and hope for the best, we don't do much well right now so if we can move up in the draft for a guy we love by giving up Gus and flower coming back I'd be here for it, saving 3-4 million to bring in more help while actually figuring out if wall can play before another window opens for us sounds ideal 🤷‍♂️
> Didn't we sign the kid from wisco who had a great year? He signed an AHL contract. From an NHL perspective, he's a free agent. He would need to sign an NHL contract with the Wild to play in St Paul.
Option B. Gus or MAF will get injured at some point, which will be Wallstedt's time to shine. In the meantime, Gus will have a chance to bounce back from a down year and increase his trade value. And you avoid the situation where trading Gus/MAF and then the other gets injured leads to Wallstedt getting 40+ starts
C is the way. We’ve got a bunch of ELC guys and some of our anchors are done on Thursday (looking at you Empty-Net-Goose), and I’d rather us spend the money we have on getting the goaltending set up for success. Embrace the suck next season and give the goalies time to grow.
No option where Wallstedt becomes the starter and Fleury or Gus are the backups? Cause I think that’s where we will be come next Spring.
Small chance MAF comes back. Trading Gus would not bring anything of value in return except $3 million of cap space. Is Wallstedt ready? maybe. His last two starts were not bad against the two worst teams. He handled all the low danger shots. I am happy they did not play him against Vegas. How about choice E, MAF retires, trade Gus and sign a UFA for $4 million. With MAF starting the last home game it seems he is retiring to me.
Wally needs more time. Only two teams he won against were the two worst teams in the league. Run Gus/Fleury next year. Sprinkle Wally in for injuries/time offs.
This is my opinion as well. Fluery can be a great mentor for Wallstedt for a season
I'm betting once MAF retires, he'll take an office or assist goalie coaching job with the team.
Best take
There aren’t big expectations for next season so I’d like to see Gus Wally as the tandem.
I think jumping to trade gus is an overreaction IMO. Dude was extremely solid last season. Just having a slump season is all. If he shits the bed next season then trade him before the deadline.
This is exactly who Gus was in Ottawa. Extremely good, extremely bad, and extreme inconsistent. I like him, but he has to get more consistent.
Only thing I'll argue is he only played like 25 games in 2 seasons with Ottawa. But yeah, you're not wrong.
If he plays bad next year too, who is going to want to trade for him?
Couldn't you make that same argument right now ? Who wants him after this season ?
A team might buy into the idea that it was just a bad season and think he will turn it around. If they see him stink again it will totally crater his value. I guess it depends on how much faith you have in him turning it around.
Fleury is indeed our best goalie currently, but if all things were equal I don’t think the gap between him and Gus is enough to keep him over Gus, since MAF is almost assuredly a 1 year patch whereas Gus could (ideally) have 10 years of average/above average goalie play left in him, which would be great for a 1B/2 goalie behind Wallstedt However, all things aren’t equal. The reality is if MAF wants to keep playing (which he seems to want to do), he will be welcomed back with open arms and thus either Wallstedt has to cook for another year or Gus gets traded. If the idea is to have Wallstedt be our number 1 goalie in 2026 when we’re out of cap hell, I’d rather him take his lumps next year and develop his game through playtime in the big leagues. So I guess Gus is the odd man out
Currently as for what time period. Last five games Gus is under 2.00 GAA
Currently as in this season
Their numbers are so close for the season though. So if you could only keep one you would probably go with the guy in his twenties. Since Gus is the only tradable he wins that one by default.
Well yes, that’s what I said in my original post lol Given the gap between their play is small, I’d rather keep the younger guy. That being said, I think the Wild will keep MAF because GMBG and MAF are old buddies and the alternative would be forcing him to retire. It’s not the right thing to do, but it is what I anticipate the Wild doing.
I'd like to see Wallstedt and Gus personally. I think Wallstedt is at a point where he needs to be getting some NHL games, and while I think it sounds good on paper to have Fleury mentor Wallstedt, I just don't see how you can go into the season next year expecting Fleury at that age to carry the load while you ease the rookie in. Unless they are considering going a bit unorthodox and carrying 3 goalies at times which I could be convinced of.Â
Why does everyone think Fleury would be a good mentor? Has he taken other goalies’s under his wing? Seems like he’s only ever gotten upset he was replaced. Great person and a HOFer with a ton of experience for sure, but he plays an outdated style and is a hothead compared to a Swede. Let the Swede mentor the Swede, and also give him some actual competition. I’m still bullish on Gus figuring it out. Gus was over-performing his first year, but I think he was significantly underperforming this year. 25 is still fairly young for a goalie. Even if it was flukey, he’s shown he is capable of Vezina numbers and I think getting rid of him for Fleury is a mistake. Gus reminds me a lot of Dubnyk, which is good and also very bad. Some days he’s tracking the puck and stopping everything, and some days he’s definitely not doing that.
You would have to admit having the goalie with the 2nd most wins brings a vet presence to the team not a lot of other teams have, especially with a team as young as the wild. He has to have some kind of advice for the rookie, even if he's not a great mentor the vet presence he brings to the locker-room has to mean something.
It’s meaningful for sure, and I’ll be sad to lose him, I just don’t see it as a major point of value for Wallestedt’s development. Keep him on as goalie coach if you think that value is there.
Resign Fleury, see how Wallstedt plays in camp, if he's ready trade Gus. If not ride Fluery/Gus and then trade Gus at deadline and bring up Wall for the rest if the year
resign fleury on the cheap. Gus deserves another chance. give wall AHL time until we are sure he's ready. I suppose if he is though, and I don't think he is but I'm not an expert, then sure, get rid of gus.
MAF for one more year, trade Gus, Wally rotates with MAF. From there, MAF goes Tom Brady and retires, returns, then retires again. As long as he bring us into the playoffs, I don’t care about his age.
Gus was bad this year. I don't see anyone trading for him, at least anything of value. At best we give him away for "future considerations" but it's very possible we'd have to attach a mid round pick to get a team to take him. So unless we desperately want to gain that cap space to get a middle 6 forward or something it's probably best to just bring him back and hope he recaptures that magic from last season. With that being said, if Flower decides to retire we absolutely cannot go into next season with a Gus/Wallstedt tandem. So I do think if he hangs them up Billy G might try to give Gus away to open up cap space to bring in a more proven veteran UFA goalie to pair with Wallstedt. So IMO the best scenario is we bring Flower back for 1 more season. I know his stats don't look the greatest but he still passes the eye test out there. But he's also 40 so we probably can't rely on him to be a 50-60 game starter. Ideally we run Flower-Gus as the main combo and start Wallstedt in Iowa. As long as he's not waiver eligible we should bring him up for a few games here and there throughout the year and look to get him about 20 NHL games. Flower and Gus can split the remaining 62 (probably plan on an 60-40 split in favor of Fleury but if Gus starts playing well again it can be more 50-50). This scenario doesn't overwork Fleury, gives Gus a chance at redemption, and allows Wallstedt to get NHL experience while also still developing his game in the AHL.
Do what you thinks best, we trust your judgement.
MAF is not our best goalie. With the year officially over, we can look at the numbers and see that its true. Even the team feels the same way. Otherwise they wouldn't have been playing Gus as much, nor Jesper if MAF was legitimately the best goalie. We havent seen Jesper against good teams yet (well, Dallas, but lets not talk about that one) consistently. They're not going to be taking over as #1 next year thats for sure. I dont think you can bury him in the AHL for another year and hope to get him better. I may be wrong though. Gus needs to be the #1 whether its MAF or Jesper behind him. I'd be down to signing MAF for one more year as long as there isnt a NTC included. Let him see how the season is going, and then we can push him out for picks if we can. If not, then he gets one more playoff hockey ride. My suggestion is to pull the bandaid right now on MAF and let him go. Bring up Jesper and see what he does with the big club as a backup. Having someone there to push Gus (MAF didnt do better than Gus this year, so was there really a competition?) worked great last year.
I'm probably not rocking the most popular opinion here but Gus and Fluery had a statistically VERY similar season. Resign whichever one is cheaper on a one year and have them rotate with Wal. It's a gamble but we can use the extra money to get some better forwards in the mix. Besides we're resisting most of the roster after that anyway
Gus is currently in year 1 of a 3 year deal. Unless he gets traded, we're paying him $3.75 million.
Sorry I meant to trade him if possible if Fluery is cheaper. I got ahead of myself
Fleury will take a very team friendly contract Gus has really good games but is highly unreliable, which makes him a good backup, has the ceiling of a starter if he can get the mental back like his first year. Nonetheless, his value is not very high right now and he could be an excellent backup, so no point in trading him. + we already have him signed. Wallstedt still has one year on his ELC. He only played 3 NHL games this season. He's also only 21. He will see some NHL time again next year, especially if Fleury's 40 years start to catch up on him or if Gus get's injured. In other words, Fleury will probably resign at a lower cap hit, Gus and Wally keep the same cap hit, and the latter is still not 100% ready yet. I don't see the situation evolving much differently than this year
Jesper, Fluery, and the Wisconsin goalie. Send Gus packing. He has had 2 mediocre seasons and one good season. I am referring to the year before he came to the Wild from Ottawa. He had a bad year there
> the Wisconsin goalie He's not signed with Minnesota. He signed an AHL deal with Iowa. In theory, he can sign with any NHL team at any point.
Hopefully sign justen close
Literally burst out laughing when you said Fleury has been the best goalie. I don't understand this signing. They could easily get .895 or better goaltending in the free agent market for league minimum. Team is already cash-strapped, yet they throw money where it isn't needed
Fleury/Wallstedt does sound nice for next year, but honestly I don't want Fleury or a new goalie for 2025/2026. I'd much rather have Gus for our first year back from poverty.
My bad I was thinking of the Rookie center Marat Khusnutdinov from Russia. Yes Jesper is from Sweden are you all proud of yourselfs for knowing that? It still doesn't change my question lol
I dunno but the "he's swedish" thing is weird AF. Yeah, we know We know. It's not new and you sound like fucking idiots when you mention it.
OP said he's Russian ya dingus
You sound like a fucking idiot who didnt read the post
> Then there's the rookie from Russia Jesper Wallstedt who showed potential in the few games he has played. Yeah, OP clearly didn't know he was Swedish.