Rising star Jesper Wallstedt takes the crease for Minnesota, facing veteran Juuse Saros as the Wild open their season against a formidable Central Division rival in Nashville.
The Minnesota Wild (0-0-0) is back in action tonight for its first game of the new 2026-27 NHL season.
Minnesota is coming off a 46-24-12 season which accumilatyed to 104 points and for third in the Western Conference and its third-highest point total in franchise history.
On the road tonight to face the Nashville Predators (0-0-0), the Wild will returm home on Saturday for their home opener.
Here are tonight's starting goaltender matchup and the first of this new season. As a part of every gameday, the plan at The Hockey News Wild page is to provide a starting goaltending matchup story, a player to watch story and a game preview story that includes the lines.
So without further a do here is tonight's matchup.
Jesper Wallstedt will get the start in goal tonight. Filip Gustavsson remains out for the month, so Wallstedt will have a big runway to start the season.
Wallstedt, 22, went 18-9-6 last season with a 2.61 goals-against average (GAA) and a .916 save percentage (SV%). He ranked 16th in GAA and second in SV%.
He went 9-4-4 with a 2.44 GAA, .920 SV% and two shutouts in 17 road starts last season as well. He started one game against the Predators last year.
Wallstedt stopped 20-of-22 shots faced in the final game of the series between the Predators and Wild during the regular season.
That was the only time Wallstedt has played against Nashville.
Juuse Saros will start in net for the Predators.
Saros, 31, went 28-22-8 last season with a 3.16 GAA and a .894 SV% in 59 games. He played the second most games in the NHL by any goaltender and is expected for another big load of games this year.
The 5-foot-11 goaltender went 1-0-1 with a 3.85 GAA and a .893 SV% in two starts against the Wild last season and is 10-3-3 with a 2.50 GAA, a .921 SV% and two shutouts in 16 career starts against the Wild.
There you have it folks. Tonight's goaltender matchup. Wallstedt (0-0-0) vs Saros (0-0-0).
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