Abbreviated title.
A snippet:
"That’s the other thing with Guerin saying “our time will come.” It’s not like the Avalanche, who entered the year with no cap space and still added and added at the deadline, are going away anytime soon. Same with the Stars, who have among the top young cores in the league. The Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers are staying atop the Pacific. Several building teams, like Utah, will only get better.
Guerin not only has to sell other free agents on the Wild being legitimate contenders with those teams, but he also has to give his best pitch to his own superstar, Kaprizov. Let’s be clear, there’s no “plan” — three-year, five-year, etc — that doesn’t involve Kaprizov being the centerpiece.
Kaprizov, the best player in franchise history, can sign an extension July 1, one year removed from unrestricted free agency. He also has played three games since Christmas, with an undetermined return date. Asked if the Rantanen deal set a bar for Kaprizov this summer, Guerin said, “I’m not going there.”
That’s because Guerin knows $12 million ain’t getting it done for Kaprizov. Will $15 or $16 million?"
Much of the piece is detailing everything that is going wrong right now. Injuries, inability to score, dealing for Brazeau only to not play him, Trenin being a swing and a miss…what's the actual plan?
Link for those interested: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6189268/2025/03/10/wild-guerin-pressure-contender-free-agency-deadline?source=user-shared-article
18 comments
As long as Craiggers is Owner, Guerin will be fine. The “country club” that used to be at Target Center is now firmly in St Paul.
Besides, we’re only on year 1 of the 5-year plan. /s
I think the fanbase is going to be in for a rude awakening when we realize that those buyout cap hits aren’t going to make any difference. The FO has dug a hole with the cap situation and players by trying to always fight for the playoffs, and now that we’re stretched about as thin as paper, with no cap, and tons of guys either needing contracts or walking, we are going to have to hope and pray that our vaunted prospect pools can actually materialize next season, or we’re going to be bumping shoulders with the Sharks.
If they can’t figure out special teams once the buyouts are done, there is no way they will be anywhere close to contending.
I said it in the GDT, but I’ll say it again – Billy G has one year to show us a significant improvement with the cap space. After that I’m more than happy to see him go.
I’m thinking he’s going to have to do some heavy work to potentially offload some bad contracts with some high picks this summer and next. I don’t know if it’s serious roster construction that he has to do, but he definitely has to reshape the group to make it more competitive and dynamic to keep Kirill. It’s great that we will have more youth in the next while, but it’s all unproven.
I’d be happy to see us move on from Zuc, Mojo, Hartman, Merrill, Bogo, Freddy and even Yak. Don’t know how feasible it is to do all that, but I think he needs to really look at doing that
I don’t even know with this team man. I think Kappy will stay here, and get a fat contract. But we NEED 1-2 bonafided scorers. Not some third tier washed up 33 year old (not saying anyone in particular it’s just the guerin special) a younger PROVEN scorer.
The pressure should be on guerin. He is so confident and short with the press like don’t worry I’m a limo driver! But I’m going to trade for a guy who legitimately can’t skate and not play him. So it’s like ok bill, explain yourself. And then he gets mad. Like dude. You’re a GM act like it.
I was defending him over this trade of Khus and Lauko and now I cannot. After I saw this Justin cat skate worse than me in Bantams (I was a really good skater but honestly the dude can’t skate!!) and now I’m super mad that it happened. Baffling. Explain yourself. But he won’t. It was cute and funny at first like ok bill is gonna kick ass and take names with no BS. But now everyone would like to here the plan. Fucking Bill.
Its technically him and smith, but this kind of feels like an article Russo wrote solely because him and Guerin have been annoyed with each other lately. Ultimately there’s not a lot to this article other than saying the pressure is on next season which yeah I think we’re all aware of that.
He sets up the article talking about why the team isn’t a contender and then nit picks the deadline for not doing enough like a move for Nico Sturm was really going to move the needle.
He talks about Kaprizov’s contract and how we don’t know where that number is going to be. Then asks what moves they are going to make in the off season which yeah we’re not going to know until they have some more resolution on Kaprizov.
Idk there just isn’t a lot to this article.
Shades of the Fenton days when Russo made zero effort to hide his contempt for the guy. Still, he’s not wrong – whatever cap flexibility we might’ve otherwise had with the Parise/Suter buyouts coming off the books will have largely been eaten up by some of the seriously dubious contracts Guerin has handed out over the past couple of years, and now we ship out two young players under team control for a rental of questionable quality in Brazeau? It just seems like sometimes BG will make a move for the sake of making a move and not with any apparent plan in mind.
do people forget Avs have had Landy on LITR for 2 years? that is one of the reason they’re able to get pieces. That’s 7 mil right there to work with.
Are we really asking these questions if 3 of our top 5 skater are healthy? Kaprisov was the MVP favorite before going down… it shouldn’t be a shocker we have struggled without him, let alone also JEEK and Brodin.
MVPs are important. Think about taking away Yokic from the Nuggets or Josh Allen from the Bills… neither would be contenders either.
Everything is falling apart and it’s hard to blame anyone but him. This team looks exactly like the team they fired Dean over. This isn’t coaching. This is a fundamental lack of depth and discipline. SOG ≠ SIG. Im tired of the moral victories in late season. We have the structure to contend but clearly there are gaps in the roster and the flame is dwindling while the iron is hot. The west has become playoff hockey mid-season and we are completely showing our asses. I think I speak for most of us fans when I say that I imvest too much money on tickets, merch, and emotional fortitude to put up with this any longer.
>Let’s be clear, there’s no “plan” — three-year, five-year, etc — that doesn’t involve Kaprizov being the centerpiece.”
If true, then BG is more of a liability that I could have even imagined. Leaders must be aware of best and worst case scenario’s, and plan accordingly. This and last season are screaming to me that BG has a plan, that is overly fixed, and not able to deal with long term persistent issues with strategic change (see special teams)
This summer is going to be huge no matter what happens. It will determine if this franchise has a turn at the top of the mountain or if the franchise continues to exit in the first round. We’ll see how the franchise acts, and how the league acts regarding added players and privileges in Minnesota.
I get that people are sick of excuses and the team is hard to watch right now, but you have to realize that we are icing a roster that is $10 million below the cap FLOOR right now and $30 million below most teams we’re playing against.
I haven’t liked every move Guerin has made, but if you zoom out the results have mostly been good. We’ve been competitive despite a huge cap disadvantage and have simultaneously built a very good prospect pool (another thing people are sick of hearing about, but it does matter).
I fully expect Guerin to make one or two big swings this summer, but however it shakes out the team should be very good on paper. I’m still optimistic.
“If the Wild weren’t actually a contender needing a piece to get over the hump, why would they make a signing like Trenin one summer away from getting their cap shackles off?”
This has been my main complaint with his moves to this point. Why do we keep locking up NMC and money on aging players. These last 3 years should have been for truly identifying who’s gonna be here beyond next year and clearing the salary cap decks for spending/trades. Instead somehow convinced themselves they could make playoff runs and traded away assets/picks for rentals. I just dont get that
I don’t want anything to do with deadline deals. We saw it so many times with Fletcher, the prices are outrageous and it usually doesn’t translate to winning a cup. Dallas may be the exception this year… but look at the core group of goal scorers they already have on the roster through drafting.
Trading for a large rental that can’t skate and then not playing him on the PP when the PP is as laughably bad last night just highlights that BG’s size queen mentality needs to go. Maybe he just wanted to get rid of Khus and Lauko… sure, don’t throw in a draft pick to do it.
I don’t know what BG can do in his first year with cap space that would be a good idea. Overpaying 33 year old UFAs is not going to develop this team. The best thing to do is draft well, manage the assets to get more draft picks and sign and extend the players. A sudden cap increase is not going to give us homegrown talent to spend it on.
My first game as an 8 year old boy was with my father and his friend. I had to put the bottle of whiskey in my coat pocket. I walked in and Dino Cicerelli was hanging in effigy from the balcony. When chants of DINO SUCKS DINO SUCKS. I was instantly a Chicago Blackhawks fan for life. The North Stars. The Dead Wings were the Norris rivals and I hated them. I have grown into a mature man, sorta. You guys have been in cap hell. You have been decent the entire time. As an outsider, Guerin has done a better job than many others that have been in his position. Your day is coming soon. I get the fact it’s like a few weeks before summer break in school and you get restless. I hate to say it, you guys are going to be able to spend and be a part of a top few teams.
I still say the final number for Kaprizov is 8 x $13.75m. That should reset the market for wingers, and will put Kaprizov within $2m total of Draisaitl’s deal, which is about as much as he can reasonably ask.
In terms of the offseason, I think Guerin has to think long and hard about three players:
1) Hartman. That $4m looks worse by the game, not because he is an awful player (though he’s been pretty substandard this year), but because that $4m could go towards the purchase of another superstar to go alongside Kaprizov. At this point, I would move him under the condition that the taker takes the entire contract. Maybe you get a Chicago or an Anaheim to stomach that, especially because it’s only two years’ worth, and both of those teams are still years away from contention. I just don’t see a world where keeping Hartman here for the remainder of his deal makes sense for them.
2) Zuccarello. It’s become clear that Zuccarello is really only useful in the context of Kaprizov. If he’s not attached at the hip with Kaprizov, he plays nowhere near his $4.125m cap hit. That creates a ton of lineup problems for them in terms of 5v5, especially when injuries hit. If the Wild want to contend, they absolutely can’t afford 5v5 passengers. You can argue that it’s just one more year and that $4.125m really isn’t that expensive in terms of his upside, but if it’s between keeping Zuccy and bringing in another $10m+ type player that can take them to the next level, I’m taking the latter option.
3) Rossi. At this point, Rossi has proven he can play at this level and has gamer potential. He has scored some big goals and has acquitted himself pretty well. Again, the question becomes whether he is good enough (or will remain good enough) to warrant $6m+ per year on a long-term deal, and moreover, whether that money could be used towards bigger and better things (new signing, holding money for Yurov and Buium, etc).
I *do* think that Guerin is going to be under the gun to make some sort of noise this summer. This team absolutely needs another top-end forward, potentially two. Gus and Wally will be fine as the goalies. The blue line has elite depth. But by God, they need to find out a way to add some scoring to this lineup, and fast. If they really want to contend for a Cup, it’s time to get ruthless.