ST. PAUL, Minn. — When Bill Guerin first got the Minnesota Wild general manager job six years ago, one of the first things he said was:
“I think there’s everything here to win.”
The Wild haven’t gotten out of the first round since then — their streak extends to 2015 — and even Guerin admitted before this season that they’ve never really been “serious contenders.”
That has to change now. Guerin knows it. There are no more excuses. The shackles are off, with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter’s $14.7 million of dead cap hits almost completely coming off the books starting in 2025-26.
“It’s just like, ‘Oh God, we don’t have to hear about it anymore,’” Guerin quipped.
But that also raises the expectations — and the pressure to deliver. Guerin said this is “without a doubt, the best position that this team has been in,” since he arrived. He’s confident he’ll extend the contract of superstar Kirill Kaprizov this summer, when the Russian winger is eligible to add up to eight years on to the final year of his contract. Guerin also has a No. 1 goalie in Filip Gustavsson, a cornerstone defenseman in Brock Faber, elite forwards like Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek and some talented young players starting to arrive like Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren, David Jiricek, Danila Yurov and Jesper Wallstedt.
Now Guerin has to add to that foundation with an aggressive and smart offseason to put the Wild in a class with the top teams in the Western Conference. That means sensible decisions in free agency or bold trades.
“It’s important,” Guerin said. “There’s always a process involved. But the process gets sped up when you don’t have the constraints that we’ve had. You know me now. I like to be aggressive. I don’t want to sit on my hands at all. And I’m kind of tired of doing that. Since I walked through the door, my goal has been to build a championship-caliber team in this market. And that’s what I want to do.
“I don’t want to sign any stupid contracts or anything like that. But I want to make this team better than it is today.”
As much encouragement as the Wild could take from how they played against the Vegas Golden Knights — everyone from players to staff said it felt “different” than previous years — it wasn’t enough and led to an eighth straight first-round exit.
Once again, the Wild are holding end-of-the-year postmortems while eight other franchises have moved on to the second round.
“I’m not satisfied with the result,” Guerin said. “But I’m not disappointed in our players or coaches.”
The key question is whether the progress will be enough to convince Kaprizov to sign an extension one year removed from free agency on July 1. Kaprizov said he “loves everything” about being here and contract talks “should be good,” but until he’s locked up, the team’s long-term future is on unsteady ground.
“My expectations are to get him signed,” Guerin said. “That’s it. Obviously everyone knows how important Kirill is to the team and the organization, to the market. He’s a star player. That’s priority No. 1.”
Signing Kaprizov is the no-brainer with seemingly no budget, as owner Craig Leipold said before the season that no team can — or will — offer him more term (an eighth year as opposed to 31 other teams that can only sign him for seven in 2026) and money than Minnesota.
Kaprizov’s teammates will probably try to do their share of recruiting.
“I’m just threatening him a little bit, that’s it,” veteran winger Marcus Foligno joked.” I think everything is going to be just fine there. He’s enjoying it. He’s enjoying the team. I think the biggest thing is that he just wants to win, and I think this was a promising sign that our team can do it. We can get there. We’re so close. I think if it was maybe the other way around — if we didn’t show up and it was a little disastrous — I think maybe. But I’ve got 100 percent confidence that we’ll get him here long-term. Or I’ll just rip up his visa.”
What Guerin does next with around $17 million in cap space this summer could go a long way in determining whether the Wild do take that next step.
Guerin acknowledged that July 1 can be a “day of mistakes,” with most teams having to overpay in free agency. The key will be to be aggressive but smart in addressing needs. Even though 23-year-old Marco Rossi scored a career-high 24 goals and 60 points, Guerin says the priority this summer is to get center help to take a load off Eriksson Ek, adding he “wouldn’t be opposed to a scoring winger.”
Brock Nelson, John Tavares and Sam Bennett are some of the top centers on the free-agent market. Mitch Marner is the biggest fish, primarily a wing who can play center. Brock Boeser is a notable winger available who the Wild have flirted with trading for in the past.
The heat is on Guerin to make the right moves.
“I get excited,” Guerin said. “Not that I don’t feel pressure. I do sometimes. I’m more excited than anything. It’s been a long couple years dealing with this stuff. Honestly, just hearing about (the Parise and Suter buyout penalties). … With that comes higher expectations, but I like high expectations. I want high expectations. I’m not doing this job to sit in a corner.”
And then there’s the question of what to do with Rossi. If Guerin wants to add to the center position in free agency and believes Yurov can make a “big impact” on the roster (assuming the team’s able to sign him), where does that leave room for Rossi?
Rossi was “disappointed” with his fourth-line usage in the playoffs after being in the top six most of the season. The 2020 first-round pick was the team’s second-leading scorer and played the third fewest minutes among Wild players in the playoffs.
Rossi said he had an honest, “man-like” exit meeting with coach John Hynes on Monday. As much as Hynes and Guerin say Rossi wasn’t demoted — that Ryan Hartman was elevated — that’s semantics, and there’s definitely a disconnect here between the two parties.
This genuinely could spell the end in Minnesota for Rossi, a pending restricted free agent who didn’t accept a five-year, $25 million extension earlier this winter.
Is there a path forward?
“To me, it’s understanding each other’s side,” Hynes said. “For sure he’s not going to be overly excited about his minutes. … We have honest conversations. We’ve had it. We’re in a good spot. He understands. I understand where he’s coming from and how he felt. Now you just move on.
“It’s not a situation where we don’t trust him or we don’t like him. If you look at how much I played him and relied upon him and have a relationship with him and put him in situations to succeed, as well. Some of it comes down to performance, particularly in a playoff series.”
Marco Rossi had a career year only to see his ice time fall drastically in the playoffs. (Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)
The question is whether Rossi wants to re-sign at a number and term the Wild are comfortable with. There are teams that would no doubt try to offer-sheet him if he remains unsigned beyond July 1.
So could Guerin see trading Rossi around next month’s draft?
“I don’t know,” Guerin said. “We’ll see what happens. There’s contract talks. There’s player movement — not just for Marco; for anybody. I’m not going to try to predict the future where I see this, I see that. I have to go through the process and see where it goes.”
Guerin said the blue line is set, and he knows they’ll have to try to find a spot for David Jiricek after giving up Daemon Hunt and four picks to acquire him. So there shouldn’t be any additions on that front (Declan Chisholm is a pending RFA). Guerin indicated it is possible they could re-sign one of their pending UFAs; Marcus Johansson is the only one that seems to make sense.
Guerin said he could see a situation where he approaches Gustavsson about an extension. The Swede has one year left on his deal at a $3.75 million average annual value. The Wild will likely try to find an experienced No. 3 goalie to have in AHL Iowa, considering the struggles of their top prospect, Wallstedt, who is expected to back up Gustavsson next season.
Guerin finally has flexibility with the buyout dead weight behind him. The salary cap is going up significantly the next three seasons. And there’s a core group of players — Foligno, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Mats Zuccarello and Hartman, to name a few — who aren’t getting any younger.
Now is the time to strike for Guerin, who enters his seventh season.
“These are big jobs,” Guerin said. “They’re important jobs. There’s a lot of people out there who love the Minnesota Wild. And I’m trying to deliver something to them. We all are. We’re trying to deliver that to them. It’s a lot. But I love it. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
Wild salary cap situation
(Photo: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)