Wild Avoid Arbitration By Re-Signing Filip Gustavsson To A Three-Year Deal
Filip Gustavsson's initial arbitration date was set for Aug. 4 but the Wild elected to sign Gustavsson to a three-year deal five days prior.
Gustavsson's arbitration case would've only allowed for a max of a two-year deal, this way his three-year deal will pave the way from young goaltender Jesper Wallstedt to tag team with Gustavsson in the next coming years.
The 25-year-old goaltender is coming off a career season where he posted a 22-9-7 record, a 2.10 goals-against average, and a .931 save percentage in 39 games.
He ranked second in the NHL behind Vezina winner Linus Ullmark in goals-against average and save percentage last season amongst all qualified goalies.
Earlier we talked about what Ilya Samsonov's arbitration case would mean for the Wild and now Gustavsson is making $200,000 more than Samsonov but has two extra years on his deal.
What this means going forward
The Wild have now established the fact that Filip Gustavsson will be their No. 1 goaltender going forward as he will likely carry a big workload next season with Marc-Andre Fleury on the final year of his deal.
Although the three-year deal doesn't close the door on Jesper Wallstedt's future but actually provides some stability to the Wild as they don't have to pressure Wallstedt into playing in the NHL before he should.
If Gustavsson can duplicate the season he had last year the Wild will be in a great spot for years to come.
The cap hit of 3.75M leaves the Wild with 1.64M to work with. They also have to decide whether or not to re-sign Calen Addison or not.
