{"id":548120,"date":"2026-04-08T22:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548120\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:06:14","slug":"the-wild-must-learn-whether-they-can-trust-wallstedt-in-playoffs-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548120\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Must Learn Whether They Can Trust Wallstedt In Playoffs – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Minnesota Wild recently clinched<\/a> a playoff berth and are on a collision course for a first-round matchup against the Dallas Stars. Now that the Wild have punched their postseason ticket, it\u2019s time for the team to use their final regular-season games to make some decisions about the team that will take the ice in Game 1. The most crucial decision they\u2019ll face is who will backstop the team in net.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota has found success all season long with a battery of Filip Gustavsson<\/a> and rookie Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>. Both have played well, and over the course of a full regular season, it\u2019s great to split time between two solid netminders.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, that arrangement leaves an issue come playoff time. When the games matter most, teams generally decide to lean on one goaltender in net for consistency throughout a series. John Hynes was recently asked if he\u2019d consider playing both goaltenders in the playoffs, but was noncommittal on the issue.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI haven\u2019t thought that far ahead,\u201d Hynes said<\/a>. \u201cI think that they both give us a chance to win. So that\u2019s a good feeling. So we\u2019ll see how it goes down the stretch. Both guys are gonna get a good amount of work here leading into the playoffs.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAt first glance, it may seem like Filip Gustavsson is the right choice for the job. He\u2019s the more tenured player and has playoff experience. Still, Jesper Wallstedt has done enough to deserve a chance in the final weeks of the regular season to prove he\u2019s the Wild\u2019s best option.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most obvious reason Wallstedt may be the better choice is simply that he\u2019s played better recently. The Wild\u2019s goaltending faltered<\/a> somewhat in recent weeks, but frankly, that\u2019s been more on Gustavsson than Wallstedt.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the beginning of March, Wallstedt has made seven starts and eight appearances. In those seven appearances, he\u2019s logged a .900 save percentage or above seven times. He\u2019s made 183 saves on 197 shots against for a .929 save percentage. That total is third-best in the league by goalies who have made more than three appearances in that time span.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn contrast, Filip Gustavsson\u2019s .902 save percentage is 20th in the league in that same timespan.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother reason to give Wallstedt a good chance to earn the role is that it makes sense from an asset management perspective. The Wild are clearly all-in on competing for a championship this season.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota appeared to consider trading<\/a> Wallstedt at the trade deadline for a major piece, but they never did. Keeping Wallstedt was a future-focused move. Still, it would also mean the Wild had an asset they could have gotten something for sitting on the bench in the postseason.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSuppose the Wild were to go with Gustavsson and lose the series, even if Gustavsson played well. That would raise questions about whether keeping Wallstedt was the right move if they didn\u2019t trust him when games mattered most.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth of those factors are good reasons to give Wallstedt a chance to take over the net. Still, there are games to be played. Everything could change if one goaltender plays significantly better or worse over the team\u2019s four remaining games. So, what can Minnesota do to evaluate whether Wallstedt is ready?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe easiest answer is to give him the brunt of responsibility in the remaining games of the regular season. Give him two of the four against the better competition to see if he stays in top form.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMost crucially, the Wild must play Wallstedt in Thursday\u2019s game against Dallas. The Stars and Wild are nearly certain to play each other in the first round. If Wallstedt can play as well as he has since the beginning of March against Dallas, it\u2019ll go a long way in proving that the net should be his for Game 1.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother interesting layer to that game is that it would allow Wallstedt to answer the one thing he hasn\u2019t this season over Gustavsson. The Wild have played the Stars three times so far this year, and they\u2019ve started Gustavsson in all three games. Gustavsson has been mostly solid in those games, especially in the most recent matchup, where he made 29 saves on 30 shots in a 2-1 OT win for Minnesota.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWallstedt still has yet to face Dallas\u2019 lineup. That question needs to be answered. If he plays well against the Stars, he should be a lock for Game 1. If not, Minnesota can be confident with Gustavsson\u2019s recent performance against its rival.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota\u2019s other games will come against the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, and Anaheim Ducks. Anaheim is another, albeit less important, matchup against a team headed for the postseason that Wallstedt could use to sharpen his game heading into the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team can always use both goalies in the playoffs, but most teams operate with the one who has \u201cthe hot hand.\u201d For what it\u2019s worth, Jesper Wallstedt recently iterated<\/a> that he isn\u2019t sure about rotating in the postseason.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s hard. You don\u2019t want to switch up too much if one\u2019s hot. It\u2019s hard for me to say too. I\u2019ve never been in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So I don\u2019t know much either,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll see. I think either way we\u2019ll be in good hands.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMinnesota has two capable goalies who could play in the playoffs. Despite a recent slump, Filip Gustavsson is also a more than capable goaltender. Having two starting quality goaltenders is a good problem to have, but only one can play at a time. The Wild should give Wallstedt the chance to be the one who gets first crack at playing between the pipes in the postseason.\n<\/p>\n

\n Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we’ll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Wild recently clinched a playoff berth and are on a collision course for a first-round matchup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,795,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-548120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jesper-wallstedt","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116371363400044874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}