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

The Minnesota Wild have signed starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson to a five-year, $34 million extension, general manager Bill Guerin announced Saturday.

It's the second major piece of business for the Wild this week after they signed star winger Kirill Kaprizov to a record-breaking eight-year, $136 million deal Tuesday.

Gustavsson, 27, was entering the final year of his contract that paid him $3.75 million annually. The Swedish goaltender emerged as one of the NHL's most dependable starters last year, playing a career-high 58 games. He went 31-19-6 with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage and finished sixth in Vezina Trophy voting, securing two third-place votes.

A 2016 second-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Gustavsson spent the first two years of his NHL career in Ottawa before he was traded to Minnesota in 2022 for veteran goalie Cam Talbot. Gustavsson initially split the net with veteran Marc-Andre Fleury in Minnesota before taking the reins as the Wild's starter.

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

The extension means the Wild have locked down most of their core players under the age of 30 on multiyear deals, including Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber. Minnesota also has several players on entry-level contracts who should be key contributors this season, like Liam Ohgren, David Jiricek and Zeev Buium.

Gustavsson's contract also comes at what many NHL evaluators have called a thin time for the goaltending market.

Minnesota finished fourth in the Central Division last season, which once again is shaping up to be the most competitive in the NHL. The Wild are looking to rebound after last year's first-round exit to the Vegas Golden Knights.