![\"Minnesota](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776230648_573_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Jesper Wallstedt let in a goal on a power play against the Minnesota Wild in the first period, looked up at the scoreboard to quickly analyze the replay, and realized something wasn’t right.<\/p>\n
The name on the back of his green jersey was misspelled: W-a-l-l-s-t-e-a-d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn April Fool’s joke,\u201d Wallstedt said after beating the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, \u201cbut a little late.\u201d<\/p>\n
So he’s sure this was a classic rookie prank and not an honest manufacturing mistake?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, 100 percent. I don\u2019t know exactly who it is, but obviously I have a feeling of who it could be,\u201d said Wallstedt, suggesting fellow goalie Filip Gustavsson was the culprit.<\/p>\n
When Marc-Andre Fleury retired last spring, he left behind quite the legacy as a prankster. Though Fleury turned over the net to Gustavsson and Wallstedt on the ice, the 41-year-old with the second-most wins in NHL history has stayed around the team this season as a practice goalie and with an informal front office role as a player development advisor.<\/p>\n
Was it possible Fleury found his way in on the joke too?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Minnesota Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt (30) defends the net against the Anaheim Ducks during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: AP\/Lily Dozier<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I didn\u2019t think that Flower could be involved,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cThen I definitely think it\u2019s a team job. Well done for them. Yeah, I\u2019d rather take it that way than having my car on cinder blocks or something. I\u2019d rather have my name a little misspelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record, Wallstedt had his proper spelling restored for the second period. He had 34 saves in the 3-2 win over the Ducks and finished his rookie season 18-9-6 with the NHL’s second-best save percentage (.915). <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope they threw that nameplate away,” Wallstedt said. “I have no idea where it went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since starting his career 8-0-2 with four shutouts, Wallstedt has continued to give the Wild confidence in their tandem of Swedish Olympians \u2014 and a decision to make with the playoffs approaching.<\/p>\n
Gustavsson has more experience and enjoyed plenty of strong stretches this season, but he’s only 2-4 in his last six starts with 25 goals allowed. Wallstedt might have forced his way into some type of rotation in the first-round series against the Dallas Stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the way I\u2019ve been playing lately, especially after the Olympics. I thought I was in a good spot going into the Olympics, too,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cObviously I was a little bit bummed that I didn\u2019t get to play anything there, and maybe that gave some extra motivation for the games after. And ever since, I\u2019ve felt like I\u2019ve been in a good spot and given our team a good chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Jesper Wallstedt let in a goal on a power play against the Minnesota Wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,4227,404,3563],"class_list":{"0":"post-268583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-minnesota-wild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}