{"id":589706,"date":"2026-04-06T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589706\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:22:07","slug":"wild-working-to-sign-viking-gustafsson-nyberg-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589706\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Working To Sign Viking Gustafsson Nyberg \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Wild are on the verge of signing UConn defenseman\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/574619\/viking-gustafsson-nyberg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Viking Gustafsson Nyberg<\/a>\u00a0to an entry-level contract that begins this season, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7171638\/2026\/04\/06\/wild-viking-gustafsson-nyberg-signing\/?source=emp_shared_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Russo of The Athletic<\/a> reports Monday. In the interim, the team <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/wild\/news\/minnesota-wild-signs-defenseman-viking-gustafsson-nyberg-to-amateur-tryout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a> they\u2019ve signed him to an amateur tryout that will allow him to make his pro debut this week for AHL Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>Having Gustafsson Nyberg sign a tryout first will allow him to get minor-league action in while still allowing him to be an NHL option for at least one game in the regular season, while burning a year off his contract. Since he\u2019s not a Wild draft pick and wasn\u2019t on their reserve list at the trade deadline, he would not be eligible to play in the AHL this year once he signs an NHL contract.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old Swede will check into the pro ranks after a three-year collegiate career. The hulking 6\u20196\u2033 lefty committed to Northern Michigan as a freshman but entered the transfer portal the following year, landing in Connecticut for his sophomore season.<\/p>\n<p>Gustafsson Nyberg has been a shutdown standout for the Huskies. His offensive utility is limited; he\u2019s scored just three goals with 22 assists for 25 points in 110 career NCAA games. However, his +18 rating this year led UConn while serving as an alternate captain.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll turn 23 during training camp next year, but he\u2019ll still be 22 on Sep 15, so that\u2019s his signing age for the purposes of his entry-level contract. That means it\u2019ll be a two-year deal when he puts pen to paper, so even if the contract starts now, he\u2019ll have to wait until 2027 to test restricted free agency. It seems unlikely he\u2019ll be in serious contention for an NHL roster spot in the fall but should be a welcome defensive presence for Iowa as the Wild look to replenish their cupboards after dealing away a significant amount of prospect capital this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wild are on the verge of signing UConn defenseman\u00a0Viking Gustafsson Nyberg\u00a0to an entry-level contract that begins this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7524,575,85,206,288055],"class_list":{"0":"post-589706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-minnesota-wild","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-transactions","14":"tag-viking-gustafsson-nyberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}