Wild sign Pickard, Shaw, Joshua, Gambrell to contracts
The Minnesota Wild shored up their goalie depth with one of the more notable journeymen on the market as they signed well-traveled netminder Calvin Pickard to a one-year pact amid Wednesday’s free agency frenzy.
Wild incumbent starter Filip Gustavsson could spend the early part of 2026-27 convalescing after his offseason hip surgery. Pickard, a veteran of 191 NHL games with six different teams, represents an experienced stopgap option who can serve as backup to brilliant second-year shot stopper Jesper Wallstedt in the meantime.
Despite a grisly 2025-26 campaign that saw him clear waivers (3.68 GAA, .871 SV% in 16 GP), Pickard will be fondly remembered by fans of his now-former club, the Edmonton Oilers, for his ability to step up as an unlikely hero when the Oil’s backs were against the wall; Pickard relieved then-Oilers starter Stuart Skinner in consecutive postseasons from 2024-25.
Although Skinner always bounced back in time for the Western Conference Final, Pickard’s 8-2 payoff record for Edmonton was critical to the team’s back-to-back Cup Final runs.
Pickard, an awkward scrambler without elite size or athleticism to fall back on (.901 career SV%), will now settle into an appropriate role as a No.3 option on a team with ambitions that are every bit as lofty as Edmonton’s; Minnesota is thinking Stanley Cup in the last year of superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes’s contract.
Also heading (back) to the State of Hockey on a two-way contract is Mason Shaw, a former fourth-round pick of the Wild who has established himself as a middle-six sparkplug at the AHL level.
Shaw’s abysmal injury luck (four ACL tears, three as a pro) kept him from ever building on a promising 59-game audition (7 G, 17 P) with the big club in 2022-23. After two healthy seasons with the AHL Manitoba Moose, Wild GM Bill Guerin is nonetheless convinced he can at least step in to help out Minnesota’s embattled farm team in Iowa. It’s not out of the question that Shaw could earn a spot start or two at the NHL level; he never shorted Minnesota on effort the first go-around.
In an addition deal later in the evening, the Wild signed Jagger Joshua to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $875,000. Joshua is expected to spend the season with the Iowa Wild after registering eight goals, 26 points, and 101 penalty minutes in 71 games with the Rochester Americans last year.
Dylan Gambrell has returned for another year, signing a one-year contract worth $850,000. Like last year, look for the 29-year-old to remain in the AHL and provide scoring depth for Iowa.