ST. PAUL, Minn. — Was it a practical joke from retired, longtime prankster Marc-Andre Fleury or protégé Filip Gustavsson? Or was it an honest mistake?

Several of the nine Minnesota Wild regulars scratched from Tuesday night’s regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks, such as Brock Faber and Ryan Hartman, were convinced it was the latter as much as they wanted to believe it was the former.

Jesper Wallstedt is convinced it was “100 percent” a practical joke and alluded that it had to be his goalie partner, Gustavsson, who has taken up Fleury’s old role as the team prankster.

During warmups and the first period Tuesday night, the nameplate on the back of Wallstedt’s green home Wild jersey was misspelled “Wallstead.”

@RussoHockey have you seen the latest Flower work? pic.twitter.com/FqiWHjbZo4

— Peter Kuhnly (@kuhnly21) April 15, 2026

Wallstedt had no idea until he peeked at the JumboTron to analyze how Mason McTavish scored against him.

“I thought something just looked a little weird on my upper back,” Wallstedt said after making 35 saves in a 3-2 win over the Ducks. “And I kind of saw that the ‘T’ was gone and there was an ‘A’ there instead that probably shouldn’t be there. So, yeah, I think it was an April Fools’ joke, but a little late, because I think I didn’t end up playing that game.”

By the time Wallstedt returned to the ice for the second period, his nameplate was spelled correctly, “Wallstedt.”

The problem is that by then, pictures of the jersey from fans in the crowd had gone viral, as did FanDuel Sports Network North’s video of Wallstedt’s new look and subsequent back-and-forth.

“If we scan the crowd, we might see Marc-Andre Fleury somewhere in a mustache,” said Wild color analyst Ryan Carter, the former Ducks Stanley Cup champion.

At least Wallstead almost sounds the same as Wallstedt 😅

Close enough… right? 💀

(🎥: Fanduel SN) pic.twitter.com/gjvlzeBAGy

— BarDown (@BarDown) April 15, 2026

Fleury, for the record, wouldn’t fess up to the misspelled nameplate of his Wild backup heir apparent during a text exchange with The Athletic. In fact, Fleury, who still fills in often as the Wild’s practice emergency backup, wasn’t even at the game. He was in Las Vegas for an alumni golf event.

“I don’t know exactly who it is, but obviously I have a feeling of who it could be,” Wallstedt said. “I heard something about it a couple of games ago that my name was misspelled. Didn’t really pick up on it. … So, yeah, it was fun. All good.”

Asked if he thought it was Gustavsson, Fleury or both, Wallstedt said, “Oh, I didn’t think that Flower could be involved. That’s true, too. Then I definitely think it’s a team job. Well done for them. Yeah, I’d rather take it that way than having my car on cinder blocks or something (like Fleury did once to Brandon Duhaime). So I’d rather have my name a little misspelled.”

While Wallstedt’s convinced it was a mistake, the trainers at least originally thought it was an innocent mistake. NHL teams preorder jerseys. They come with the nameplates sewn on. The equipment staff double-checks to make sure everything is correct and accurate and just missed this one.

During the first period, behind the scenes, the Wild’s equipment staff actually requested the in-arena warehouse that makes custom orders for fans to print out a correctly spelled “Wallstedt” nameplate. They quickly ran the nameplate down to the locker room for the staff to sew on another No. 30 sweater.

“I didn’t even know it was going on until after the game (the game),” coach John Hynes said. “But it’s funny because I did see them re-steaming a nametag on the jersey (during the first intermission), but I didn’t think anything of it until they started telling me afterwards. Has anyone gotten to the bottom of it?

“It was all news to me until about 10 minutes ago. It’s one of those things where you’re like now I’m connecting the dots and I’m like it was odd.”

The ironic thing about Tuesday night? It was Fan Appreciation Night, so select season-ticket holders got an actual “Jersey off Our Back.”

There was no word whether the lucky fan who selected Wallstedt got the “Wallstedt” jersey or the now-collector’s item “Wallstead” one.

“I hope they threw that nameplate away. I have no idea where it went,” Wallstedt said. “I told (assistant equipment manager) Cliffy (Halstead) that I don’t want to see that name again. It was changed until the second period. Then I didn’t give up any goals in the second. I told him, ‘I like this jersey better.’ But, yeah, I don’t know where that went.”

The fact that “Cliffy’s” last name has a “stead” in there, by the way, may be a clue as to how and why the practical jokers got the idea to turn “stedt” into “stead.”

Or, it could be one giant coincidence and one very funny mistake.