Jesper Wallstedt is in town tonight.
Yeah, that guy… The Goalie The Oilers Didn’t Want .
The hottest goalie in the National Hockey League today with the Minnesota Wild. The Swedish youngster won six-straight starts in November, on his way to being named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month. He stopped 202 of 208 shots, and recorded three shutouts.
Admittedly November is only an appetizer for the 23-year-old, who had a rough 2024-25 season in the minors, but now he looks like he’s on his way, firmly in a goalie rotation with countryman Filip Gustavsson.
Now, NHL amateur scouts all make mistakes — later first-rounders aren’t slam dunks and goalies can hit in the fifth round too — but this was a forehead slapper for former Edmonton head of scouting Tyler Wright, now player personnel head with Los Angeles Kings.
In his draft year, Wallstedt’s pedigree looked very strong, playing a significant role in the Swedish Hockey League at 18 for Lulea.
The 6’4”, 215-pound Wallstedt had played for Sweden in the World Junior tournament six months earlier.
He and former Edmonton Oil Kings starter Sebastian Cossa were head and shoulders above the other goalies in the 2021 draft pool.
‘Just overthink things’
“They were both elite at the time but sometimes you just overthink things… we’ve all been there and done it. I watched Jesper a lot and not once did I see or hear of any red flags,” said TSN’s draft expert Craig Button.
“As (former Dallas scouting head Tim Bernhardt) said, ‘if you don’t draft goaltenders, then you’re not going to have them when you need them.’”
While the Oilers had a small Russian Ilya Konovalov in their pipeline (third-round 2019 pick), the Oilers were keen to draft the 6’7” Cossa, hoping he might be there at their No. 20 draft slot, but Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman boldly moved up to get him at No. 15, giving up the 23rd, 48th and 138th picks to Dallas.
Cossa, 23, just named AHL Goalie of the Week in Grand Rapids, has only played one NHL game but could be with Wings full-time next season with Cam Talbot’s contract ending this July.
After losing out on Cossa, they talked themselves out of Wallstedt. They traded their No. 20 pick to the Wild, for their No. 22 and the 90th overall picks. They went into that draft without a second or third-round selection so getting No. 90 helped, at the time.
But, they not only missed on Wallstedt but at No. 22 they decided to take winger Xavier Bourgault. Yes, Wyatt Johnston, who had four points against the Oilers a week ago, was still on the board.
That 2021 draft was a complicated one though with junior leagues either not playing at all or very shortened 20-21 seasons because of Covid.
The OHL had no games because of the shutdown so there weren’t any live viewings on Johnston, but Dallas leaned into their scouting from the season before (30 points in 53 OHL games) and the U18 worlds in April, 2021 to take the centre at No. 23.
“In fairness, teams were drafting off seven U18 championship games Johnston played. There wasn’t a lot on information there,” said Button.
Button has also been there when teams offer you a draft pick or two to move back later in the first round, so he can understand what the Oilers were thinking with no second or third-rounders in 2021.
“I remember when we were in Dallas in 1998 we really liked Scott Gomez and had the 27th overall pick. But we talked and talked and felt we had enough centres. So we got two second-round picks from New Jersey for the pick. Two years later Gomez is Rookie of the Year and he goes on to help Jersey win a Stanley Cup. The picks we got were (winger) Tyler Bouck (91 games) and (D) John Erskine (491),” he said.
But missing out on Bourgault after passing on Wallstedt, stung.
The 179-pound Bourgault, who had 20 goals in 29 games for Shawinigan in the QMJHL in his draft year, never played a game for the Oilers before getting traded to Ottawa. He’s never played an NHL game period.
“That compounds the problem,” said Button.
Picks didn’t pan out
Bourgault, after 54 points in 117 games in Bakersfield, was traded in the summer of 2024 for another winger Roby Jarventie, who had fallen out of favour with Senators because of injuries (knee).
Bourgault? He has 43 points in 83 games for their AHL farm squad in Belleville, 14 in 22 games this season, so fairly good stats but he was an early training camp send-down by the Senators this fall.
Bourgault hasn’t got an NHL look with them, either.
Wallstedt was unique, starting for Lulea in his draft year, as a teenager. He had a 2.23 average. Bourgault, shifty but small and not ultra quick, never stood out at Oilers training camps and didn’t pan out in the minors.
The 90th pick in 2021 was a big German defenceman Luca Munzenberger. He went to U of Vermont but when his four-year college career ended they didn’t like him enough to sign him. He started this fall in Cologne in the DEL, but has since joined Kassel in the DEL2.
That’s a triple whammy.
Now, Wright tried to atone for his Wallstedt error in 2022, taking another Swedish goalie Samuel Jonsson in the fifth round. He was tickled to get him. And Jonsson, who turns 22 later this month, has been lights out in ECHL Fort Wayne in six games in his first North American audition (three shutouts, 1.64 average). But, he is at least two years from being an NHL possibility.
Nobody’s saying Wallstedt would be supplanting Stu Skinner here as the starter if Oilers had just done the expected thing four years ago and just taken Wallstedt, who played in two World Juniors at Rogers Place, but there might be a rotation here.
Wallstedt’s road to the NHL has been far from a straight line because he had an .879 save percentage and a 3.59 goal average in Iowa last season, unhappy to be in the minors but blocked by Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury.
His practice habits were called into question and he wasn’t in a good head space, at all. But with Fleury retiring, he’s happy and lighting it up now.
But last year was an eye-opener for Wallstedt.
Lots of analysis.
He wasn’t talking Tuesday morning — he doesn’t speak before games like most goalies — but he told The Athletic he was very aware of the negative vibe.
“When you’re struggling you read a lot of stuff about yourself,” said Wallstedt.
“You’re like ‘You didn’t think I’d get here. All of you guys thought I was a bust after one bad year in my whole career. In that way it feels kind of good to prove just a little bit.”
But he also put the brakes on his play in November even though he ended Colorado’s 10-game winning streak with a shootout victory, stopping Cale Makar’s last shot.
“It’s a small sample size. There’s lots of hockey left. But it feels good in the beginning now to kind of point the middle finger back a little bit and try to get on a roll,” he said to The Athletic.
His head coach John Hynes has seen a different Jesper this season.
Maybe a more grown-up Wallstedt, who maybe needed a jolt of reality.
“He made some real commitments over the summer to show he wants to get the most out of his ability. We know he has NHL talent. He’s learning the other parts, how important the stuff around the game is… your nutrition, rest, recovery, practice is a big one,” said Hynes.
“Jesper didn’t handle it well at the end of training camp last year when he went down (Iowa). It affected him and injuries came into play. He had a tough year. Adversity always comes into play, especially with young players, though. What I like is he turned the learning steps into action to play at this level.”
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