DALLAS \u2014 When the newest member of the Wild arrived on campus as a freshman at Northern Michigan a few years ago, the native of Sweden was assigned a roommate from Minnesota who was a Vikings fan. Which seemed to be some kind of synergy at work.<\/p>\n
Hulking defenseman Viking Gustavsson Nyberg, 22, is a good bet to make his NHL debut with the Wild in one of their final three regular season games, and with a name like that, is almost destined to become a fan favorite.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents liked the name, thought it was cool,\u201d said Gustavsson Nyberg, who joined the Wild in Texas after two games on an amateur tryout contract with their AHL team in Iowa. \u201cAnd then I became pretty tall soon. Yeah, fit too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spent one season at NMU, then transferred to UConn for his final two seasons of college hockey. While there, he was an alternate captain last season and the school made its first two trips to the NCAA tournament. The undrafted free agent had been to development camp with Seattle and Detroit, but Gustavsson Nyberg chose the middle of the country when given signing options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt Minnesota was a good fit for me. This opportunity here, the organization too, great organization. They create good players,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I felt like that was a great fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gustavsson Nyberg is officially listed as 6-foot-6, which would make him one of the tallest players in the NHL when he officially debuts. That could come as soon as Saturday in Nashville, where the teams are set to meet for a 4 p.m. puck drop. He said his family back in Sweden is on standby, ready to catch a flight across the Atlantic to be there in person as soon as he is handed a Wild sweater.<\/p>\n
Gustavsson Nyberg made his way to American Airlines Center to join the Wild on Thursday after playing two games near Austin, Texas, versus Dallas\u2019 AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. Wild coach John Hynes joked that finding a place for Gustavsson Nyberg in the lineup would be less challenging than fitting all 14 letters, and a space, of his last name on a jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited. You know, it\u2019s good to have him. He\u2019s a good player,\u201d Hynes said following the Wild\u2019s morning skate on Thursday in Dallas. \u201cI don\u2019t know a ton about him other than he\u2019s big, he can skate. Our guys really like him, so I\u2019m excited to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Wild\u2019s third-place finish in the Central Division all but set in the wake of a 5-4 loss to the Stars \u2014 meaning they will open the playoffs in Dallas most likely next weekend \u2014 Hynes may work a few new players into the lineup for games in Nashville and St. Louis.<\/p>\n
A strategic game or two of rest for regulars, especially on the blue line, could pay off once the playoffs begin.<\/p>\n
And while it will initially be odd for Minnesota fans to cheer for a Viking who wears green and plays on skates, as the newest member of the defensive corps gets a chance, they\u2019re likely to figure it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 When the newest member of the Wild arrived on campus as a freshman at Northern Michigan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,1119,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-549655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-john-hynes","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116381319450050714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549655","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=549655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}