stfrank
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Some exit day notes from Russo and Smith:
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Filip Gustavsson wasn’t born yesterday.
Marc-Andre Fleury signed a one-year extension with the Minnesota Wild this week, “goalie of the future” Jesper Wallstedt won both of his starts in the final six games of the season, and there’s a good chance the Wild don’t see the value of the first-round pick spending another year in the minors.
Gustavsson, who has already been traded twice in his NHL career, has a sense the writing is on the wall and that he’ll be dangled in the trade winds this offseason, especially after a season in which he admits he was way too inconsistent between the pipes.
“We’ll see. There is always a business side to hockey,” Gustavsson, 25, said Friday after cleaning out his locker and having separate exit meetings with coach John Hynes and president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin. “I like it here and would love to be back next year and try to redeem what happened this year. We’ll see.”
Gustavsson, looking shellshocked after his exit meetings with Hynes, echoed many of his teammates and talked about the “empty” feeling he was experiencing after the team missed the playoffs for the second time in 12 years.
“We came into the season (thinking) that we wanted to get by the first round,” he said. “Now we didn’t even get the chance to try and do that.”
Gustavsson posted the second-best save percentage (.931) and goals-against average (2.10) in the NHL last season but sank to an .899 save percentage and 3.06 GAA this season. He said there were too many ups and downs — “some very good games, some very poor games.”
“Very frustrating because you can play so good sometimes and then you have bad performances,” he said. “It just tears on you instead of going on a steady pace the whole way.”
There’s little doubt that Hynes talked pointedly to Gustavsson about his fitness level because Gustavsson openly talked about needing to come into camp in “the best shape I can be” next season and also volunteered, “I have some personal things I need to sort out to be even better for my own sake going out and play goalie every night.”
Gustavsson alluded to this in Los Angeles last week, as well, saying that mentally he needs to be much stronger in the net so his game doesn’t disintegrate during tough moments.
“The brain is big thing in how people work,” Gustavsson said. “If the brain isn’t there, you don’t perform at your highest level. … If you’re winning, it’s very easy. You just feel happiness, (getting) two points all the time and life is good. When you lose a few or you play bad, you start questioning yourself. Or the team is playing bad and stuff like that, how to handle it in a better. More just control what you can control.”
Hynes discussed their exit meeting and what was said about Gustavsson’s fitness level and practice habits.
“He was very well thought out in his meeting, and he recognizes some things that need to improve,” Hynes said. “There’s a clear plan in place for him. We’ll stay connected on it this summer, whether it’s myself or (goalie coach) Freddy (Chabot), with him. Sometimes in a tougher year, you learn those lessons where maybe you could get away with certain things before. And then when you go into a situation where it doesn’t, I think sometimes it ignites someone to realize that there needs to be a certain improvement.
“He’s a very talented guy and I think the big thing a lot of players have to learn is that a lot of them are here because of talent, but then how do you take that talent and make it excellent or elite? A lot of times it’s all the things surrounding the game. It’s your mental toughness. It’s your mental mind state. It’s your fitness. It’s how you practice. And it’s how you prepare. Sometimes guys need to learn that they need to take it to another level to maximize their talent. And that’s encouraging to us that Gus is in that place.”
Injuries wrecked Jared Spurgeon’s 2023-24 season, and the Wild missed him. (Nick Wosika / Getty Images)
Spurgeon: ‘My foot would go completely numb’
Wild captain Jared Spurgeon on Friday gave an inside look at just what he was dealing with through a season that started with a preseason shoulder injury and ended with back and hip injuries that required a pair of surgeries.
“My foot would go completely numb during games and just wouldn’t come back for a couple hours,” Spurgeon said. “So, obviously, it’s tough when you’re out there just trying to skate and all that stuff; it got to the point where you’re toe-picking and stuff like that, and it’s very frustrating.
“You want to help the team, but you don’t feel like you’re helping them, either. That was something that once the surgery was done, it went away. My first skate back, there was none of that. It was an awesome feeling.”
Spurgeon said he began skating four weeks ago and is confident he’ll be ready to go for next season.
“Every day, stuff has been a thousand times better than it was before,” Spurgeon said. “I’m very happy about that. Every day is something new. You’re just trying to get your body back to the way it felt before you had that injury. I had the post-op appointments a couple days ago with one of the surgeons, and things went well. So, just progressing as need be.”
Besides helping on the ice, where he was sorely missed this season, Spurgeon is looking forward to having a voice in the locker room again. Even as captain, when you’re not in the battle, it’s hard to speak up during tough times.
“You’re more there to hear things out,” he said. “During the game, you can’t go in the dressing room and say what you’re seeing from up there. It’s a different feeling from above, as well, so it was more just trying to be there to bounce things off of each other and give them a sense of what I’m seeing, and my opinion, as well. It was definitely tough when you’re above and not really in those moments.”
Faber played injured for two months
After consultation with the Wild medical staff, rookie Brock Faber will skip the World Championship.
Why?
Guerin revealed Faber played with fractured ribs for two months and needs to rest.
“That’s the type of kid he is,” Guerin said. He never complained, never said boo. He could have been out of the lineup a number of times and he just wasn’t.”
Despite all that, the Calder Trophy contender scored eight goals and had 47 points this season.
Hynes, who will coach the U.S. team, said, “I’ll take him with one rib.”
World Championship steam
Several Wild players plan to participate in next month’s World Championships in Czechia, including Matt Boldy (United States), Mats Zuccarello (Norway), Joel Eriksson Ek (Sweden) and Marco Rossi (Austria).
“My plan is to play in the World Championship — if I make the team,” joked Zuccarello, a no-doubt shoo-in for Norway.
Boldy was on the U.S. team for worlds two years ago (along with Ryan Hartman), but it was a delayed two-game stint until they passed their COVID-19 tests. He’s planning to go this time around, no doubt at the urging of Guerin, who isn’t GM of the World Championship team but is GM of the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympic team.
If the talented winger wants to earn a spot on those teams, it would be a bad look not playing at worlds, especially with Hynes coaching and Guerin looking for players to play in two big tournaments the next few years.
“I’ve been to one, but a shortened one,” Boldy said. “So it’ll be kind of cool to experience that and go there and try to win.”
Hynes was honored to get the coaching nod.
“There’s a lot of NHL players going — a lot of pretty prominent NHL players that are going to go that have had success or not in the playoffs. That’s really important,” he said. “I think there are lots of players on the team who are looking to play in meaningful games and show what they can do and show guys like Billy and his Olympic management group that these guys are committed. It’s a sacrifice to go, but also they can play winning hockey. They can play their best when the stakes are the highest.
“Even as a coach, it gives you an opportunity to test yourself. You’re with different players, different coaches. You’re going to be in high-stakes games — all those things. You’re going to work with other general managers. In all my experiences, and I’m lucky enough to do a lot of them with USA Hockey, I’ve always become a better coach. You get different ideas. You get challenged in different ways. To me, we’re not in the playoffs this year, I want to play in meaningful games and coach in meaningful games and coach under pressure and try to get a team to win a championship, so I couldn’t be more excited and honored to go.”
Zuccarello and Rossi will also represent their countries later this summer in Olympic qualifiers.
If Norway wins its group against Denmark, Great Britain and Japan in Aalborg, it’ll get one spot in the 2026 Winter Games. If Austria wins its group against Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Hungary in Bratislav, it’ll get one spot.
Fans in Montreal may get another chance to say goodbye to Marc-Andre Fleury. (Vitor Munhoz / NHLI via Getty Images)
Fleury’s farewell tour
Fleury feels comfortable now that he doesn’t have to move his family, having signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal.
And he can put any retirement questions to rest considering he’s said that next season will be his last.
But this will also put the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer in an uncomfortable spot of being feted in a farewell tour next season. You think the Penguins fans were loud for him last season? Vegas?
“It’s not something I look forward to or that I need,” Fleury said, smiling. “I want to come back and try to win more games. I think at the end of the day, that’s all I care about. I’ve been very lucky to be doing this for a long time and have a lot of good memories in different buildings and places. But, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t need more attention. I’m good.”
In Montreal for the third game of the 2023-24 season, Fleury wasn’t sure if it would be his final game there. His mom, sister and many family members came just in case.
“Me and Moose (Marcus Foligno) were joking that we can’t wait to see him in Montreal again this coming year,” Spurgeon said. “He’s just a special teammate, special player, and to have him come back and to go back at it with him again is awesome.”
Odds and ends
• Guerin said he hopes to fill out his front office by the middle of next month. The Wild fired assistant GM Chris O’Hearn earlier this season, so we could see one or two assistant GMs. One possibility is Mat Sells, the Wild’s analytics expert who also has been negotiating contracts. Hynes said he anticipates the coaching staff returning, but there are meetings still to come on that front and some internal evaluation from Guerin before that’s set in stone.
• Nate Benoit, a Wild 2021 sixth-round pick, has transferred from North Dakota to Quinnipiac, the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman reported. The defenseman has three more years of eligibility.
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