latest \u201cFellowship of the Rink\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cAnd if it doesn\u2019t happen now, maybe it\u2019s not meant to be? Maybe there\u2019s something bigger in the summer? We were patient. You don\u2019t think a player like Quinn Hughes becomes available, but look at how early in the season he did become available.<\/p>\n\u201cSo I have to look at the history of things to help me be patient. I\u2019ve always said, \u2018No knee-jerk moves.\u2019 I\u2019m not always true to myself on that. But I try to be. We really try to weigh the pros and cons.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck is one player who could make sense for the Wild. There are other centers and forwards on the market, too, and the Wild are canvassing their options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to add a forward at some point in time if it makes sense,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cIf we can do it. It\u2019s always talked about, with our team, adding a center. Of course, we\u2019d love to have a center. I think 32 teams would love to have a center. If you can\u2019t do it, maybe we pivot to a wing. But it all really just has to make sense when we\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me. I like to be aggressive. But I like to try to be smart. It\u2019s not always the easiest thing for me. But I have really smart people around me and guys who aren\u2019t afraid to tell me, \u2018No,\u2019 or, \u2018Don\u2019t do this,\u2019 or, \u2018Maybe try this.\u2019 I\u2019ve got great support helping me make decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key question for the Wild is what they\u2019re willing to give up. Their cupboard isn\u2019t bare, but their prospect pool doesn\u2019t have many high-end guys left as chips for a trade. Wallstedt is one player who could be moved in the right deal, likely for a top-flight forward,\u00a0with Filip Gustavsson under contract through 2030-31.<\/p>\n
When asked if he had any untouchables, this is how Guerin put it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in that,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cI always go back and say, \u2018Hey, look, Wayne Gretzky got traded. Wayne played on four teams. Mark Messier got traded. He played on three teams. Eric Lindros. A lot of great players like (Steve) Yzerman and (Joe) Sakic played on one team. But great players get traded, too. So sometimes you just have to be patient. Nobody is untouchable. But you always have to think of who you\u2019re actually getting and what that\u2019s doing for your team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Quinn has done for our team and our market \u2014 not that those other guys (in the trade) are not good players or are going to be great players; they might, but it\u2019s not right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the roster freeze set at 2 p.m. Central on Wednesday through Feb. 22, Guerin\u2019s focus will shift to the Olympics in Milan. He\u2019ll head there this week to see if the team he built can bring home gold. As GM of Team USA, he knows not everybody is happy with the roster.<\/p>\n
What was the hardest part?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think leaving some players off \u2014 players that deserve maybe better,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cBut we have to build a team. We have to fill roles. We have to do all those things. I understand people don\u2019t like to see that or understand that or agree with it, and that\u2019s fine. But I have to make hard decisions, and you see some of the guys that didn\u2019t make the team \u2014 Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, three world-class players; they could easily be on the team \u2014 but I had to make other decisions. And that was the most difficult part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players that Guerin might get the most criticism for including are Rangers forwards Trocheck and J.T. Miller, who are having off years on a struggling team. Guerin said there\u2019s more that goes into it, though, including their strengths and roles on the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in body of work, and I\u2019m a big believer in roles those players can fill,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cThey\u2019re elite offensive players, but they also are elite penalty killers, faceoff guys. They can do so many things. They are very versatile. And that was one of the things I really had to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Versatility played a role in Jackson Lacombe being the next guy up on the blue line when they had to make an injury replacement for Seth Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe plays power play. He kills a ton of penalties,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great skater, big body. He plays on the left and the right. Those are the things if we start getting into injury problems, who can go where? If we have guys that have the ability to play multiple positions and do all those sorts of things, then that\u2019s really it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You think Bill Guerin is motivated to make another move before the March 6 NHL trade deadline? Absolutely,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,54125,161,38,5280,4,2602,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-445166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116012726809371776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}