Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars will begin their seven-game playoff series on Saturday afternoon at American Airlines Arena, where the Wild will attempt to defeat the Stars in the postseason for the first time since the franchise moved from Minnesota to Texas, following the 1992-93 NHL season.
Without a doubt, the Wild — who totalled 104 standing points this season — harbor the most talented roster in the franchise’s 25-year history, but the NHL’s frustrating playoff format pins them against the Stars, and void of home-ice advantage. How much that matters is yet to be determined.
Unlike goalie play, which is oftentimes the deciding factor in any playoff series, and surely will be in the first round of this postseason matchup, as well. And that brings us to arguably the biggest variable of the upcoming MN Wild vs Dallas Stars series.
Minnesota Wild to start Jesper Wallstedt over Filip Gustavsson
Minnesota’s starting goaltender, Filip Gustavsson, has been brutal in net of late, allowing three or more goals in each of his last nine appearances and he’s allowed four our more goals in four of his last five.
Meanwhile, former first round draft pick and one of the best goalie prospects since Marc-Andre Fleury — 23-year-old rookie Jesper Wallstedt — has been incredible, allowing three or less goals in each of his last ten games and two or less goals in nine of those ten.
Thus, there were a lot of questions over who the Wild were going to start in net for game one. Do they let Gus take the net, with a short leash, or just go with the kid right away? We got our answer on Friday afternoon, when Michael Russo tweeted that Wallstedt will indeed start tomorrow.
Wallstedt will start Game 1 for #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 17, 2026
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The decision by John Hynes isn’t necessarily a shock, but it is a bit surprising. While Gustavsson has made a case for the benching, it’s still difficult to choose the unknown, over the guy who has already been there.
But instead of going with the guy who has 11 career playoff games under his pads, the Minnesota Wild are starting a goalie has has ZERO postseason experience. Now, it’s up to him to take advantage.
Goalie (2025-26)StartsGoals
AllowedGAASave%F. Gustavsson491332.69.903J. Wallstedt33872.61.915Hockey-Reference.com
Quinn Hughes not with team yet, but…
Beyond the move at goalie, John Hynes told Russo that, while Quinn Hughes did not travel with the team to Dallas today (as expected), he WILL play on Saturday afternoon in game one.
Of course, that was always the expectation, but now it’s unofficially official. Hopefully he is as close to 100% as we can humanly expect because the Minnesota Wild need him at his best in this series.
Update: Hynes anticipates Bogosian playing, and as I mentioned in the Quinn story, Hughes playing https://t.co/mL7GiQ0HiZ
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 17, 2026
Mentioned in this article: Jesper Wallstedt
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