Wild give goalie Gustavsson 5-year, $34M deal

The Minnesota Wild person signed starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson to a five-year, $34 cardinal extension, wide manager Bill Guerin announced Saturday.

It's the 2nd large portion of concern for the Wild this week aft they signed prima winger Kirill Kaprizov to a record-breaking eight-year, $136 cardinal woody Tuesday.

Gustavsson, 27, was entering the last twelvemonth of his declaration that paid him $3.75 cardinal annually. The Swedish goaltender emerged arsenic 1 of the NHL's astir dependable starters past year, playing a career-high 58 games. He went 31-19-6 with a 2.56 goals-against mean and a .914 prevention percent and finished sixth successful Vezina Trophy voting, securing 2 third-place votes.

A 2016 second-round draught prime by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Gustavsson spent the archetypal 2 years of his NHL vocation successful Ottawa earlier helium was traded to Minnesota successful 2022 for seasoned goalie Cam Talbot. Gustavsson initially divided the nett with seasoned Marc-Andre Fleury successful Minnesota earlier taking the reins arsenic the Wild's starter.

Fleury retired this summer. Jesper Wallstedt, a 2021 first-round pick, is poised to beryllium Gustavsson's backup this season.

The hold means the Wild person locked down astir of their halfway players nether the property of 30 connected multiyear deals, including Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber. Minnesota besides has respective players connected entry-level contracts who should beryllium cardinal contributors this season, similar Liam Ohgren, David Jiricek and Zeev Buium.

Gustavsson's declaration besides comes astatine what galore NHL evaluators person called a bladed clip for the goaltending market.

Minnesota finished 4th successful the Central Division past season, which erstwhile again is shaping up to beryllium the astir competitory successful the NHL. The Wild are looking to rebound aft past year's first-round exit to the Vegas Golden Knights.