Top Prospect Jesper Wallstedt Growing Through Ups and Downs of Sophomore Season
The Wild’s 21-year-old goalie prospect is developing, building a foundation in Des Moines
The Wild’s 2021 first-round selection has had an eventful season, to say the least. The 21-year-old Wallstedt — who was named to the AHL’s Top Prospects Team last season — accompanied the Wild as its third goalie on its trip to his native Sweden in mid-November as part of the NHL Global Series. “I think that was very good for me mentally,” he said of returning home.
Then Wallstedt made his NHL debut with the Wild on Jan. 10 in Dallas and earned an invite to the AHL All-Star Classic in early February (held in San Jose this year) for a second straight season. Before the season started, he received an invite to and took part in the NHLPA Rookie Showcase held in Arlington, Virginia, for the league’s brightest rookies and prospects.
“The year overall has been a lot of fun,” said Wallstedt, who debuted a video series this season dubbed “Wally’s Corner,” where he lightheartedly interviews teammates. “It’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it.”
And, on top of these experiences, Wallstedt is following up an encouraging rookie campaign in 2022-23 with another strong season between the pipes for Iowa, Minnesota’s AHL-affiliate. After splitting the crease almost evenly with veteran Zane McIntrye a year ago, Wallstedt has seen his share of starts significantly increase in Year 2 as he’s solidified himself as Iowa’s No. 1.
“I feel like this year I’ve been more able to just focus on improving as a goalie and striving towards my next step — getting to the NHL level,” said Wallstedt, who added that he feels much more comfortable on and off the ice in his sophomore season.
“And I feel like I’m definitely a much better goalie now than when I got here a year and a half ago … I’m very proud of the work — but there’s still a lot of work left to be done.”
Wallstedt, who is viewed by many as the top NHL goalie prospect, has earned AHL Goalie of the Week honors twice this season. He has posted a .913 save percentage or better in 17 of his 33 starts — including 13 contests with a .930 SV% or higher. Not only has he had a large workload in terms of starts, but he’s also faced the fifth-most shots across the AHL with 964 shots against in 33 games. Not to mention he’s been in net for 16 of Iowa’s 19 wins this season.
If you ask the coaching staff and management in Des Moines about Wallstedt, they will rave about not just his progression from his rookie campaign to now — but what he has meant to an Iowa club (19-30-5) that has had an up-and-down season.
“He’s been really good,” Iowa Goalie Coach Richard Bachman said.
“He’s really an anchor back there for us,” Iowa General Manager Mike Murray said.
“He’s been our most important player,” Iowa Head Coach Brett McLean said. “He’s been our best player all season.”
Through his first 16 starts, Wallstedt — who came into the year in better shape — sported an unbelievable .935 save percentage in what Bachman describes as an “encouraging” season for the young goalie. But within all of Wallstedt’s successes and accolades this season, he has had to face some adversity along the way.
Between Dec. 20 and Feb. 2, Wallstedt played just four games. Three of those were with Iowa and then his NHL debut with the Wild — which didn’t go his way and made him “a lot hungrier,” he said. The lack of games during that stretch can mostly be attributed to an injury that sidelined him for a few weeks and two recalls to Minnesota.
This period of time messed with the rhythm that he had at the start of the season and prompted a rough patch that caused his numbers to fall to where he is right now with a .906 save percentage. “A little too low for being low,” Wallstedt said of when he struggled. “I expect myself to be there competing with the best goalies in this league.”
What was especially difficult during this stretch, Wallstedt said, was that he felt he saw improvement in some of the details of his game, yet wasn’t seeing it translate to wins and saves.
Now, Wallstedt is finally starting to see results from everything he and Bachman did during that tough stretch. All the discussions, film, focus on practice habits and identifying and getting back to the things he had done well during that strong start are paying off now.
Bachman has noticed Wallstedt’s growing confidence lately with the young Swede starting to find his consistency again with a .912 save percentage over his past seven starts since Feb. 17. Both McLean and Bachman say he’s rediscovering his game from earlier this season.
“Now he’s worked his way back into it, where he’s right where he was in the early season and looks just great and is playing very well each game for us,” McLean said, adding that Wallstedt is a big leader on the team and “right in the team fabric.”
With his struggles hopefully in the rearview mirror, Wallstedt looks back at it believing this learning experience has helped prepare him for future challenges.
“I feel like I’ve definitely learned a lot of things about myself and how I work,” Wallstedt said, “and that’s definitely gonna be very useful in the future.”
Both McLean and Bachman believe, too, this is a beneficial learning experience for him in his age-21 season.
“The midway point to where we are now, you saw kind of a little dip in his play,” Bachman said last week, “which is ultimately gonna be a really good thing for him in the long run. He’s learning how to manage getting called up or not playing for a little bit, battling through a little bit of an injury and what he needs to do to stay sharp and to find a way out when you don’t have your best stuff.
“And so then now the last five games or so, he’s really kind of found his form again. It’s all part of the development process, and it’s gonna serve him really well down the road.”
No wonder Wallstedt’s starting to find his form again. Everyone from Wild Director of Amatuer Scouting Judd Brackett and Director of Player Development Brad Bombardir to Murray, Bachman and McLean rave about the package he brings to the table.
Wallstedt has a confidence and control in net that calms the team in front of him. “When he’s in his game, there’s never any panic,” McLean said. He’s positionally sound, allowing him to control rebounds efficiently. “He doesn’t make a lot of extra work out there,” Brackett said. Not to mention Wallstedt’s hockey sense — a quality not often connected to goalies — which Bombardir calls “one of his greatest gifts” and allows him to read and anticipate plays so well.
The Wild are “thrilled” with his progress, Brackett said, since trading up to draft Wallstedt — the first ever Swedish-born goalie selected in the first round — at 20th overall in 2021 after a couple failed attempts to get higher to draft him prior to the trade.
There’s a lot of excitement surrounding Wallstedt’s future and for good reason. As Bombardir puts it, there’s “a lot of things going for him,” as his success from Sweden has translated over to the AHL. However, Bombardir said everyone needs to be patient with Wallstedt — not only because he’s 21 but because goalies often take longer to develop.
“He’s rolled with the punches or rolled with the progression of development in North America now seamlessly,” Murray said, “like he gets that there’s been ups and downs. But he’s kept a level head about himself and knows that he’s going through the right process to eventually hopefully make him a full time and longtime successful NHL goaltender.”
While Wallstedt said playing in Minnesota next season is “definitely the thought process” and he’s going to give it “a very, very good shot” at training camp, his goal right now is to help Iowa make the playoffs and continue using his time in the AHL to build a game that is sustainable for the future.
“I think when I see the results, it's kind of made me understand the process of it,” Wallstedt said of the development process, adding that he knows he needs to play at a high level in the AHL first. “I still sometimes look at video from beginning of last year and just all the improvements I can see and just seeing where my game is trending is making me wanna put in the work even more.
“But also knowing that I don't wanna come to the NHL to just be an NHL goalie like I wanna get there and succeed and build a career that is going to be successful in the long run for many years. Not like only one or two seasons. I wanna build a foundation and a structure that is a game plan for a long time and hopefully be able to succeed with for a long time and not only for a season or two.”
