Wild Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines – Olympians Return, Goaltending Issues & NHL Resumes

The 2026 Winter Olympics have officially come to a close, and three Minnesota Wild players are coming home with gold medals as Team USA took down Canada 2-1 in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 22. The Wild’s non-Olympians have been practicing since the middle of last week, but with the Olympics over, the rest of the team will join them shortly. 

The Wild have three games coming up this week, with their first two being a back-to-back on the road, and they’ll wrap up the week back at home. Here are a few storylines to follow for the week of Feb. 23 – Mar. 2. 

Wild’s Olympians Return 

Although it was only a few weeks, it felt like much longer for most Wild fans who missed their team while the Olympics were underway. With the awarding of the gold medal for men’s hockey, the Olympics have finished, and now it will be time for the NHL schedule to start back up again. It’ll take a few days for the Wild to get everyone back for practice, but they’ll have quite the experience coming back to the roster. 

The Wild had eight players representing them, and three will come back with the gold. Nico Sturm and Team Germany were knocked out in the quarterfinals, as were Team Sweden’s Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson, Jesper Wallstedt, and Filip Gustavsson. The Swedes were knocked out by their Team USA teammates Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, and Matt Boldy, who will have gold medals after defeating Canada. 

Boldy, Faber, and Hughes all had an impact in winning the gold medal, and hopefully, that confidence will come back with them to the Wild. They’re going to have to hit the ground running because the season starts back up for the Wild on Thursday, Feb. 26. 

Wild’s Olympic Goaltending

The Wild sent both of their starting goaltenders, Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, with Sweden to the Olympics, but unfortunately, things didn’t go as well as expected. Gustavsson had a rough start to his first game, which was against Italy, but after that first hiccup, he locked down, and they got the win. He played in their second game, and unfortunately for Gustavsson, it was a difficult 4-1 loss to Finland.