NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Less than 10 minutes after Freddy Gaudreau found the back of the net on Thursday night against the Nashville Predators, the Wild announced via social media that they had signed the center to a 5-year, $10.5 million contract extension.
The announcement dropped unbeknownst to Gaudreau, which made for an interesting conversation at intermission, as teammate Connor Dewar congratulated him in the Wild locker room.
“I just scored, so I was like, ‘Oh. What are you talking about?’ ” Gaudreau said. “Because I didn’t know it was out. Then I said in French because we speak French to each other. That’s when I was like, ‘All right, I guess it’s out.’ He told me, ‘Yeah, it’s out.”
For good measure, Gaudreau followed with another goal, and given the way the game was going, he might’ve completed the hat trick if the coaching staff didn’t take him out for the final 20 minutes.
“It says a lot for him to come out and play like he played,” coach Dean Evason said. “We took him out of the game. He wasn’t coming out.”
The decision to rest Gaudreau made sense considering the Wild had nothing to play for, having already secured the No. 3 spot in the Central Division. In that sense, the Wild suffering a 4-3 overtime loss to the Predators hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.
The bigger story was the fact that the Wild signed an important player to a deal that will keep him with the organization through the 2027-28 season.
“He’s willed himself to be a National Hockey League player,” said Evason, who coached Gaudreau in the minors during their respective rises up the ranks. “It’s just taken him a while like it does with a lot of young hockey players. It just takes some time. Everybody matures and progresses at different paces, and where he’s at now is wonderful.”
It always felt like only a matter of time before the Wild got this deal done. Not only is Gaudreau having the best season of his career — he has 19 goals and 19 assists and has played in all 82 games — he’s someone Evason trusts to play in every situation. That’s something Gaudreau feels, too, which made for a very easy decision.
“My heart is here,” Gaudreau said. “I felt like home the first day I got to Minnesota, so it was a no-brainer, and more than that, I believe in this group big time. That’s really important to me. I believe in this group. We have such a solid group. I believe in the culture. It’s good people first and then good players.”
To say it was a long road for Gaudreau to get to this point would be putting it lightly. He signed with the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League as an undrafted free agent way back on June 12, 2014. He grinded in the minors trying to make a name for himself and played a whopping 280 games for the Admirals alone.
“It’s something I’ve always kept inside of me as a dream,” Gaudreau said last week when asked about his path to the NHL. “There was that little voice that always told me I could. I always knew I could become an important player on a team. Just had to figure out how.”
He made his NHL debut with the Predators on Oct. 22, 2016, but he still spent a lot of time in the minors. He got called up and sent down more times than he can count. That said, Gaudreau continued to bide his time with the Predators, and after a brief pit stop with the Pittsburgh Penguins he signed a 2-year, $2.4 million contract with the Wild on July 28, 2021.
It’s proven to be the perfect fit for Gaudreau and now he will remain in the Twin Cities. He called it a “great journey” to get to this point. He added that the ups and downs have made him even more grateful for what he has now.
“The most important thing was to just keep grinding and keep focusing on doing the right stuff even with all the send-downs,” Gaudreau said. “Now I’m here with this team. It’s awesome to be a part of this locker room. I feel so grateful to have this opportunity.”
