ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sitting inside injured Filip Gustavsson’s normal stall, a place where Jesper Wallstedt hopes to reside the next two years and for many years beyond, the young goaltender the Wild still wholeheartedly believe in talked candidly about his incredibly disappointing start to this season.
After Wallstedt signed a two-year extension three days before the season, made the team out of camp and was even told he could find an apartment, the Wild ran into injury and salary-cap issues right off the hop.
To maneuver the roster, there was simply no room for Wallstedt. So the 22-year-old was quickly assigned to Iowa, joined the baby Wild in San Jose and was shellacked right off the hop to the tune of 12 goals allowed in five periods.
He has been consistently sliced and diced ever since.
Until Sunday’s season debut during a 3-2 loss to Vegas, Wallstedt hadn’t been back to the NHL. It hasn’t been just because of his subpar play in Iowa — a 5-6-1 record with a 3.77 goals-against average and .874 save percentage — or tremendous play this season from Gustavsson and his 40-year-old partner, Marc-Andre Fleury.
Despite the Wild promising he’d be in a three-goalie rotation for the majority of the season, it just never seemed feasible for a team with more than $15 million in dead cap space that it’d be able waste money on a third goalie by carrying him routinely on the roster.
That reality became evident to even him and put him in an awful head space those first few weeks to a month with Iowa.
But, Wallstedt acknowledged, “I haven’t performed to the standards that I want to be at either, I don’t think. The start I had in Iowa wasn’t proving that I belonged here at that time. But last couple weeks have felt way better. I’ve been speaking with a lot of sports psychologists and stuff to try to get my mind back and in the right spot.
“Obviously, when you’re on an all-time low, it feels like there’s no way out and you keep asking yourself what you’re doing. But I was always trusting my game. I felt like my game was in the right spot. I knew I made the team out of camp. I knew there was something that was there to build from, but it was all in my head. My head wasn’t in the right spot.”
Though Wallstedt had every right to be upset that the Wild’s plan of carrying three goalies had to change, there also came a point where Wallstedt needed to brush away the disappointment, be a professional and stop using his disenchantment with being in Des Moines rather than St. Paul as an excuse.
His game wasn’t improving. He was bleeding goals and cratering at key moments. In one game against Texas, Iowa blew 2-0 and 4-3 leads with Wallstedt giving up five goals in a span of 9:25 of the third period.
“Why am I not saving a puck in games? Why am I giving up seven goals? Why am I giving up eight goals?” Wallstedt said. “It was just like I couldn’t save a puck. It was like I hadn’t played hockey before. It didn’t feel like my game was wrong, but it felt like my head wasn’t there and then I’m the one that gives myself the hardest criticism. So I think I was just pushing myself down the rabbit hole, as well.”
The Wild finally decided to scratch him from Iowa’s lineup in back-to-back games at Charlotte as part of a “reset.” He worked overtime with Iowa coach Richard Bachman, who knows his game when it’s the strongest. There were small details Wallstedt had to adjust, he said, “but not much.”
“Like I said, it was mostly all in my head,” he said. “It wasn’t because I was pissed to get sent down. It was more, ‘OK, why isn’t it working?’ And that got more frustrating.”
Last week, Minnesota goalie coach Freddy Chabot left the Wild on a road trip, skipped the game in Utah and flew to Des Moines to meet with Wallstedt and work with him.
“Fun to get a shutout against Rockford when he was down there,” Wallstedt said, “so that was definitely positive. He picked a good day to come.”
Wallstedt was preparing to start Saturday in Rockford when he got word he was coming to Minnesota. He took a 90-minute car service to the airport, flew to MSP and prepared to start against the Golden Knights with Gustavsson sidelined by what the Wild say is a minor lower-body issue.
Wallstedt made 24 saves during the loss, and even though he didn’t look the cleanest early, he settled in and was hardly the reason the Wild lost.
“He looked comfortable in net”
🗣️ Coach Hynes on Wallstedt#mnwild pic.twitter.com/7QCxAZ9HGI
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 16, 2024
Again, because of the Wild’s cap situation, there’s a chance he could even be reassigned Monday with a couple of others since the Wild don’t play again until Wednesday.
Wallstedt admits the doubts that have crept into his head since October have been downright scary.
“That’s my whole job, and it’s something I’ve done since I was 9, 10 years old, and now I’m like, ‘OK, I forgot the ability how to stop pucks,’” he said. “It was all in my head. I was not proceeding with the right thoughts in my head, and I probably wasn’t in the right headspace.
“I had no answers. That’s why I needed people around me to help me get back there. I was so lost in my own mind and my own game where I was at in my own thoughts and everything. Everything became hockey, even outside the rink. I think overthinking got to me.”
His supporters, including the Wild, implored him to trust his game and get back to basics. They’ve done their best to remind him he’s here for a reason and there’s a reason the Wild believe so much in his future.
He said he’s thinking of key words during the game, concentrating on his breathing and thinking about that next shot, that next puck coming his way.
“Try to pick up the spin on the puck when they’re shooting, just small stuff that can make you just clean your head and focus on puck,” he said.
Coach John Hynes has alluded the last couple of weeks that the Wild were doing their best to help Wallstedt mentally more so than his actual game between the pipes.
“It’s not easy to be really good,” Hynes said. “And he’s going through his route. It’s different for everybody, and I think he’s finding his way. It was nice to see him be able to come up after playing well down there and having a reset. And I thought he gave us a chance to win the game tonight, which is good to see. And now it just continues the process of helping a younger guy who’s got immense talent, who’s a big part of the future, just work through it.
“And a lot of times when you go through some adversity, when you go through certain things like this, it does make you better. Like it does make you understand, you get a little bit of pushback. You do have to be mentally tougher to get through it. And that’s a big part of being an elite player is not just having the talent to do it but having the ability to focus and overcome adversity and fight through things.”
Wild teammates were happy to see him again and said he looked comfortable in net.
“He was big and strong all night and just confident, and guys felt confident in front of him,” veteran Marcus Foligno said. “That was a great game for him. And hopefully he can just keep coming up and having outings like that.”
Added Kirill Kaprizov, who scored both of the Wild’s goals: “It’s nice to see him and we try to help him. I feel like he did great job today, a lot of saves. He played pretty good, pretty well. It’s not great we don’t win, but he played so nice. Good for him, first game in this season and he did a great job.”
A moment for Wally 💫 pic.twitter.com/WzgbjnwRmG
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 16, 2024
Wallstedt was excited to get his first taste of playing a regular-season game at Xcel Energy Center after three games last season on the road. He said hearing the sold-out crowd cheer for him when his name was announced in the starting lineup and after his first save was “super awesome and something I hope to do a couple more times.”
But he also knows that he’s going to end up back in Iowa in the near term. And he also understands that’s probably the best place for him to continue to work on his game — both physically and mentally.
“I think it’s going to be easier now knowing what I’ve been through and learning from that experience, not get so low right away if it happens,” he said. “I’m just going to look forward and look towards the future and make sure I’ve improved from that and learned something that I can keep with me for my whole career.”
(Photo: Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)
