MILAN — Kirill Kaprizov isn’t the Minnesota Wild’s only significant player potentially heading toward unrestricted free agency following this coming season. So is No. 1 goalie Filip Gustavsson.
The Wild have yet to engage Gustavsson’s camp in extension talks this offseason, but that could change as the calendar turns to September.
As we saw when training camp began in 2023, if general manager Bill Guerin is motivated to re-sign a player (or players), he and his staff don’t necessarily need weeks and weeks of negotiations to get a deal done.
Two years ago, Guerin met with Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello at the start of the camp, and by the month’s end, Foligno and Zuccarello had four- and two-year extensions completed, respectively. Hartman got a three-year deal a week later.
With soon-to-be backup goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s “Goalie of the Future” status murky at this point, and coming off a self-described “terrible” year in Iowa, there’s a chance the Wild will want to get a jump on locking down Gustavsson beyond this season.
The Athletic spoke to Gustavsson at the European version of the NHL Player Media Tour on Friday, where he said he’s open to talking with the Wild about a future contract.
Lucky Filip Gustavsson.
I’m Stop 1 of about 30 things he has to do today at the NHL European Media Tour in Milano 🇮🇹
Six months from today, the men’s hockey Olympic gold medal game will take place in this same city and he hopes to play for Team Sweden 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/coy45G1Eor
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) August 22, 2025
“I’ve had the conversations with my agent and all that stuff, and what we’re looking into and what we would like to do or stuff like that,” said Gustavsson, 27, who’s entering the final year of a three-year deal that pays him an average of $3.75 million a season. “They haven’t started actively talking to Billy or anything. When they want to talk, then we talk, and otherwise I have this year left and I’m just gonna play and win.”
Right now, Gustavsson hopes to remain with the Wild for the foreseeable future.
“For the past three years, I’ve enjoyed playing there,” Gustavsson said. “My family loves living there, and it’s been great to me.”
Still, the situation is complicated because the going rate for starting goalies continues to climb. Evolving Hockey projects Gustavsson to command a hefty $7.46 million AAV on a five-year contract. That’d be more than 7 percent of the 2026-27 $104 million anticipated salary cap ceiling, which would put him below Jake Oettinger ($8.25 million) but higher than Stanley Cup winner Adin Hill ($6.25 million).
That projection seems high, potentially by more than $1 million. Goalies who have signed relatively recently include Lukas Dostal ($6.5 million), Logan Thompson ($5.85 million), MacKenzie Blackwood ($5.25 million), Joey Daccord ($5 million) and Karel Vejmelka ($4.75 million).
Can the Wild stomach signing Gustavsson to an AAV at more than $6 million when he continues to strive for consistency and has yet to lead them to a playoff round victory?
Remember, during the 2024 offseason, after Gustavsson had a rough year, the Wild dangled him out on the trade market. Then he rebounded last year, with a career-high 31 wins in a career-high 58 games while posting a 2.56 goals-against average, .914 save percentage, five shutouts and the first goal by a goaltender in Wild history.
FILIP GUSTAVSSON GOALIE GOAL, THIS IS NOT A DRILL‼️ 🚨 pic.twitter.com/z05VMqtvnv
— ESPN (@espn) October 16, 2024
We shall see what happens here, but this will be an interesting year between the pipes for the Wild.
The jury’s still out on the 22-year-old Wallstedt, and future Hall of Famer Marc-Andre Fleury, often the bubbliest personality in the Wild room and a true mentor to Gustavsson, has retired.
Luckily, the Wild will tap into Fleury’s hockey knowledge by having him work for the organization in some capacity. That means he’ll be around, which Gustavsson joked could be dangerous because it’ll allow the ultimate prankster to roam free in the locker room while the players are on the ice practicing.
“It’s gonna be pretty weird,” Gustavsson said of life without “Flower” as a player. “He always lights up the room when he comes in. He’s always late putting on his stuff, rushing out to the ice and he just always, every day, puts a smile on your face when you see him walking around there. Hopefully, he can show up now and then, and just walk into the room and hang out a little bit.
“But it’s going to be exciting seeing Jesper there, you know, another Swede and competing with him.”
Goalies always have the most awkward dynamic on the team.
Gustavsson and Wallstedt hit it off last training camp. They golfed and played video games together often. However, it’s Gustavsson who wants to sign an extension. It’s Gustavsson who is young enough that he could still be the Wild’s goalie of the future. He’s now caught between wanting to mentor his young countryman, while also knowing Wallstedt is his chief competition.
“It’s a fine line where (you’re) giving too much information almost,” Gustavsson joked. “You kind of want to help him and get some help back with tips and how we do certain things on the ice and what I do on the ice. You want the team to win, and both of us are going to play games. You have to be helping him that way, too, and keep it positive and be friends like that.
“So it’s a weird situation. I don’t know if many have that same direct competition because it’s you, it’s him, and the goalie coach, and you all work very tight together and fighting for one spot.”
After last season, in his exit interview with reporters, Gustavsson insinuated that “all my contacts where he was in Sweden” didn’t have glowing endorsements of Wallstedt. So Gustavsson was happy to get to know Wallstedt personally last fall and get his own, firsthand impression. He said Wallstedt’s very funny with silly humor.
“Different from my experience, what I heard before that,” Gustavsson said. “When you see him and you get a face and talk to him like that, he was very nice. It’s going to be fun just hanging out more around him.”
We’ll see where this goes with potential extension talks heading into the season. Sure, Wallstedt has long been dubbed the goalie of the future, but during his three years in Iowa, he hasn’t lived up to that pressure.
Last season, Wallstedt went 9-14-4 with a 3.59 goals-against average and .879 save percentage. He admitted he didn’t handle it well when the Wild first reassigned him to Iowa and kept him there because of a cap crunch. Remember, the Wild had him believing throughout the summer and all camp that they would somehow be able to carry three goalies despite such little cap space heading into the season. Wallstedt also had three injuries and a week off for what the team called a “mental reset.”
With Iowa, one of the worst teams in the AHL the past two years, Wallstedt went 49-48-14 with a 2.90 goals-against average and .902 save percentage. But he got a two-year, one-way contract extension last training camp, so the assumption is he’ll be Gustavsson’s backup with Cal Petersen acting as the No. 3 and heading to Iowa as long as he clears waivers late in camp.
Great effort today by Filip Gustavsson at the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour in Milan, Italy👊 pic.twitter.com/bOf0ZPoT76
— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) August 22, 2025
Regardless of his contract situation, Gustavsson said he’s looking forward to a big year with the Wild, once again attempting to get past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
As for Kaprizov, Guerin said during his Friday media availability that he didn’t want to share an update, but it appears things are status quo toward what the team hopes is an eventual eight-year contract extension. Right now, Guerin’s waiting for Kaprizov to return to Minnesota so they can meet face-to-face again.
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)