Guess what, the Minnesota Wild won again on Saturday, this time vs the Philadelphia Flyers. It was their seventh win in nine games, making them 20-6-4 on the 2024-25 season, good for the best record in the NHL, with 44 points, one more than division rival Winnipeg. In the process, however, they lost yet another player, forward Jakub Lauko, to injured reserve.
Lauko, a 2018 3rd round pick out of the Czech Republic, left Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, and did not return. The 24-year-old has played 24 games this season with the Wild, potting two goals and helping on two more (4 points).
Minnesota Wild call up Jesper Wallstedt under emergency conditions
The Czech star out of Prague played the first two years of his NHL career with the Boston Bruins, who drafted him No. 77 overall six years ago. According to Michael Russo (The Athletic), the emergency recall of Wallstedt likely means “something’s up” with either Filip Gustavsson or Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury minded the Minnesota Wild net for the entirety of today’s win vs the Flyers, and Gustavsson was on the bench, assumedly ready to back him up. Still, nobody has a better feel for the team they cover in all of the NHL, than Russo. He wouldn’t tweet about an assumed injury, unless he was very sure in his assumption.
So, as we await news on the two veteran Wild goaltenders on roster, let’s dig into this emergency call-up of top goalie prospect, Jesper Wallstedt, who is having a season to forget, between St. Paul and Des Moines. Remember, Wallstedt was supposed to be part of a three-headed net-minding monster, between he, Gus Bus and Flower.
Only after Minnesota rose to the top of the NHL standings, behind Gustavsson, who has been one of the best goalies in the league, through 30 games, did the Wild shift their plans and demote Wallstedt back to Iowa, where he has not been very good — 5-6-1 | 3.77 goals against average | .874 save percentage.
Still, that hasn’t shaken Bill Guerin’s confidence in the future of Jesper Wallstedt. He is still expected to get a bunch of games next season, and eventually take over the net for the next decade. Just last season, Wallstedt went 22-19-6 down in Iowa, with a 2.70 GAA and .910 save percentage.
Get well soon, Jacub Lauko…
Just one game after Jakub Lauko made a name for himself among the Minnesota Wild fanbase, when he got into a haymaker-fueled throwdown with 24-year-old Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ty Emberson, and came out on top of one of the best fights of the 2024-25 NHL season, so far. Now, he’ll be out of the Wild lineup for at least a week.
