Free agency is winding down to a trickle and the Wild appear to be all but done. The big news this week for the Wild was the filings for arbitration by Filip Gustavsson and Brandon Duhaime.

Arbitration may be just what the doctor ordered to get the deals done for both Gus and Duhaime.

Gustavsson is coming off a spectacular season statistically, finishing near the top of NHl goalie leader board with his sparking 2.10 GAA and .931 save percentage. This however, is the first full NHL season the Swedish netminder has ever played. He spent parts of each of the last two seasons splitting time with the Ottawa Senators and and their AHL affiliate in Belleville.

The fact that this year's Stanley Cup winning goaltender, Adin Hill, was essentially a journeyman organizational depth goalie, before getting the playoff nod out of necessity. Hill's performace was solid for the Golden Knights, but it further emphasized what we saw the previous season, when former Wild goalie, Darcy Kuemper was the Cup winning goalie.

It is not a forgone conclussion that a team needs to have the goalie that stands on their head in order to win the Cup. Gus was very good in the regular season, but he dipped a bit once the playoffs began.

Duhaime is a speedy winger who brings grit and is maturing into a very reliable checker. He does have some offensive upside but that is not what should be expected from the 27 year old winger.

The good news is both players will be with the team next season and both will have new deals well before training camp. How this plays into their futures with the Wild remains to be seen.

Gus would appear to be a guy that the Wild would love to keep longterm to form an all Swedish tandem once the heir apparent, Jesper Wallstedt, makes the jump to the NHL.

The main difference between the Gustavsson and Duhaime arbitration cases and the Kevin Fiala case two Summers back is this. Fiala did not elect to go to arbitration. The Wild made that election to ensure that Fiala was ready and at camp from the start, preventing a holdout. There was never a scenario that included Fiala in Minnesota long term and that one year deal worked out perfectly for both sides.

We will see what happens with each of these cases and then what assets the Wild have to make any other additional depth signings but at this time it appears that the open forward roster spots will be competed for by Marco Rossi, Adam Beckman, and Sammy Walker.

After this season there will be an influx of top tier Wild prospects with Liam Ohgren, Danila Yurov, and Marat Khustnutdinov all expected to come over prior to the 2024-25 season. So this is the year for the aforementioned prospects to make their mark if they are going to have a future in The State of Hockey.

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