Like most hockey coaches, John Hynes would prefer not to think about goaltending.
The Wild head coach would like to appoint one man to the job and roll with it, but reality is making that a challenge this season, in part due to the condensed NHL schedule but also because Filip Gustavsson and understudy Jesper Wallstedt are playing very good hockey.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) stops a shot during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
“There’s so many back-to-backs, and three-in-fours, and I think that to be able to have two guys that can play, they can stay fresh and stay on their game,” Hynes said after Wallstedt’s 42-save effort helped the Wild hang on long enough for a 4-3 shootout win over Carolina on Wednesday night.
“It is valuable, too, when sometimes if a guy plays and plays and plays and plays, sometimes maybe some of their games slip because of the frequency of the games.”
That frequency has been more pronounced the past two seasons. With the NHL taking an extended February break — two weeks last season for the 4 Nations Face-Off, three weeks this season for the 2026 Winter Olympics — the 82 games that will decide the playoff field are crammed into a shorter window.
Next season, the NHL will go back to a more traditional All-Star Weekend format, with the New York Islanders and UBS Arena hosting and a shorter February break. But the NHL also will add two more games to the regular season in 2026-27, meaning an additional condensation of the schedule between October and April.
Playing so many games in a tight window means that unlike in seasons of a generation or more ago, when one puck-stopper would play the season opener, the season finale and nearly every game in between, there is a greater need to share the crease.
Hynes stresses that giving goalies a break from the pressure of starting every game allows for important physical and mental rest, and offers them time to work on details with Wild goalie coach Frederic Chabot. League-wide, more and more teams are using a rotation of two or even three goalies, and as the Wild continue righting the ship after an inconsistent start, Hynes acknowledged they are trending that way.
“The way both guys are playing, for sure that’s what we’ve done for the last few games, and I would anticipate that moving forward,” Hynes said, a hint that Gustavsson would start Friday night in Pittsburgh and Wallstedt would get the net Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg.
“When you look at those things, it’s a grind for one guy to go through,” the coach added. “I think there might be some opportunities and stretches in the season where you possibly could ride one guy a little bit more than the other, but the way our two guys are playing and competing, it looks like a good recipe right now.”
In part because Gustavsson and Wallstedt literally speak the same language, and they have a good working relationship, they believe sharing the crease will work.
“It makes both goalies compete and both goalies get better from it, I think,” Wallstedt said after the busiest night of his career so far. “I think if both want to play as much as possible, and kind of make the other one play a little less, that’s a healthy competition.”
As recently as early October, when Gustavsson signed a five-year contract extension that will pay him $6.8 million per season, the mentor-mentee relationship between the pair of Swedish netminders was clearly defined. If the schedule, and the success, make it a bit more blurry, that seems to be working also.
Wallstedt’s .926 saves percentage after seven starts ranked third in the NHL among rookie goalies on Thursday. The guys ahead of him — Segei Murashov of Pittsburgh (.938) and Aleksei Kolosov of Philadelphia (.929) — have each made two starts.
“I know my role a little bit more coming into this year, and I’m maybe more accepting of that,” Wallstedt. “At the same time, I want to push Gus, and we’re having so much fun in practice, pushing each other and getting better. So, why wouldn’t we do that?”
Net Gain
The Wild are getting strong play from both of their goalies this season, with NHL rank in parentheses:
Goalie GP GS Save% GAA
Filip Gustavsson 14 14 .897 (29) 2.99 (33)
Jesper Wallstedt 7 7 .926 (2) 2.20 (4)