No matter how many more years Bill Guerin serves as the Wild’s general manager his blockbuster trade to acquire Norris Trophy winning defenseman Quinn Hughes from Vancouver in December will be the deal for which he’s most remembered.
That trade — which sent Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren, Marco Rossi and a 2026 first-round pick to the Canucks — changed the league’s perception of the Wild and made Minnesota a three-superstar team (Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov and Hughes.)
It will be the primary reason Guerin figures to be one of the leading candidates for NHL General Manager of the Year — but it shouldn’t be the only one.
Since the summertime, Guerin has made a variety of savvy moves that have led to the Wild spending much of the season among the NHL’s top teams. The Wild have 102 points with four regular-season games remaining and will face Dallas in the opening round of the playoffs.
The biggest difference for Guerin, who is in his seventh season with the Wild, has been his ability to make the moves he wants. That comes after four seasons of Guerin having put his team in salary cap hell by making the necessary decision to buy out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in the summer of 2021. Those buyout hits became minimal this season, and the cap finally increased by a significant amount.
But Guerin didn’t go on a spending spree when free agency opened on July 1, despite the fact that owner Craig Leipold had said that date was going to be like Christmas in July. Guerin’s big free agent move was signing center Nico Sturm to a two-year, $4 million contract.
His two most impactful decisions turned out to be re-signing Marcus Johansson to a one-year, $800,00 contract, and acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko and his $4.75 million from Detroit. I criticized both moves. The wingers were coming off disappointing seasons in which they had 11 goals apiece. Johansson had 34 points and Tarasenko had 33.
Johansson, 35, too often looked uninterested, and Tarasenko appeared to be a guy who had lost his once great scoring touch. So what was Guerin thinking?
In the Wild’s 5-2 win over Seattle on Tuesday, Johansson scored his 15th goal of the season (he has 47 points, his most since 2016-17), and Tarasenko scored his 23rd goal (he has 45 points, his most since 2023-24). Johansson has spent much of the season on the second line, and Tarasenko has been on the third unit. Their production has given the Wild the type of goal-scoring depth they lacked for so many years.
Having already made his blockbuster trade in December, Guerin spent the trade deadline adding veteran depth to the Wild’s bottom six forwards in an attempt to strengthen the roster for the postseason.