The Wild won't carry 3 goalies all season. Depending on how Fluery holds up and Gus looks, he should get about 20 NHL starts and a good number of starts in Iowa as well.
Yeah. I just can't see a team asking their stud young goaltender to sit around as part of a 3-headed monster all season. I'd expect something that looks a lot more like this. "Starts of opportunity" or whatever. Which is where, this looks to me, a bit like an affirmation of their future being in the hands of Wallstedt...but for right now, he may still be spending a fair bit of time down on the farm.
No, they've been pretty open with their goalie plans this year.
The Wild told Wallstedt to find housing in Minnesota, and not to get housing in Iowa. He's going to be with the NHL squad most of the time. They've also been open that there will be times he sent to Iowa to get starts when it makes sense in schedule wise, but those will be quick trips.
This year for Wallstedt is 100% about prepping him for taking over next year.
I mean, even Guerin couldn't mess up a goaltending situation that badly, could he?
I could see something somewhat the opposite. Have Wallstedt down in Iowa, and shuttle him up for "starts of opportunity" when there's a nice homestand or something close/convenient. Just bring him up for a few days start a game or two, shuttle back down. That's not a bad way to break in a young goaltender.
But having him sit around in Minnesota as part of a trio of goaltenders, and just shipping him down to the minors for the odd game to "keep him fresh" is moronic if that's the way they do it.
Partly that, but partly Iowa is close enough that he can shoot down there is he needs to get more games. I will be interested to see how Hlavaj, the new goalie that they signed, does in Iowa. I think he has some talent, also.
Part of this signing is also about Gustavsson. After a fantastic 22-23, he took a big step backwards last year, and has looked uneven during the preseason. I think Guerin wants to put the pressure on him to perform well, and if he doesn't will look to move him. There have been some mutterings about him being not being in good shape, and committing himself to training after signing his new contract last year.
The original idea was to have Wallstedt and Gus(who is still young, for a tender)man the nets for the next few years, but if Gus has another mediocre or worse year then he will be gone at the end, or even sooner, if Wall plays well and shows that he is ready for the starters spot in 25-26.
This is fair though. Obviously depends what sort of performance they get out of Gustavsson. If he stinks it up, obviously that would change things. Though it'd be a shame to "sell low" on him like that. His contract would probably still be palatable enough to someone as a "reclamation project" though.
MAF is also old as dirt now. So you never really know when he'll completely fall off a cliff as well.
So yeah...i can certainly see the conditions where Wallstedt should have opportunities to get a decent handful of NHL games under his belt this year. When the schedule (or other goalie health/performance lines up right) to shuttle him up for a few games here and there. But i'd look at the more reasonable solution as...basically having Wallstedt in Iowa...just be ready to shuttle back to Minnesota when there's a big home stand or stretch of local area games in a condensed section of the schedule...or just to come up and make starts if one of the other two go down or are really sucking it up.
