Article: The Wild Need Guerin To Lead With A Steadying Hand Not An Iron Fist

[Tom Schreier]

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[FredJohnson]

Does the fact that Hynesy got a 3 year deal indicate that Guerin had him tabbed as the next HC and it was just a short bit of time before Deano got fired?

[Pewterschmidt]

25 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

Does the fact that Hynesy got a 3 year deal indicate that Guerin had him tabbed as the next HC and it was just a short bit of time before Deano got fired?

I’ll guess Hynzy needed some term to get at least one season out of cap hell with prospects coming up to help. Workout 3 rd year he’s just the garbage man who navigates next two years

Edited December 18, 2023 by Pewterschmidt

[TCMooch]

Looks like a dumpster fire in the Wild front office and Guerin is conducting it. He's got way too much old school in him where he wants to cuss people out, talk shit about players to the media, play old tyme hockey, sign players with grit, cover up sexual assaults, and overall just be an extremely toxic person for this organization.

He is way in over his head as a GM and I don't think he should have been extended by Leipold. Leipold is probably wanting to try to salvage his hiring of Guerin because Fenton is still a sore taste in the organization's mouth but this looks like another swing and miss from Leipold on hiring a GM that isn't a piece of shit.

[Outskated]

Look, no one truly knows what happened with Heydt and Guerin except those two, HR and the lawyers.  Maybe Guerin asked him to stop doing something and he didn't stop and disobeyed direct orders? Guerin was surely in a fowl mood with all the losing and maybe lashed out?  It was a risky career move to make a move to try and get a guy with as much power as Guerin fired.  Sounds like he got some bad advice.  Hopefully Russo can share more details when the time comes.  Best case scenario is Guerin and Heydt mend fences, but that seems unlikely at this point.  

[Luke Sims]

It's been a roller coaster ride. The question is, are we at the top or the bottom of the drop?

[FredJohnson]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I’ll guess Hynzy needed some term to get at least one season out of cap hell with prospects coming up to help. Workout 3 rd year he’s just the garbage man who navigates next two years

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks.

[FredJohnson]

1 hour ago, Luke Sims said:

It's been a roller coaster ride. The question is, are we at the top or the bottom of the drop?

Still in the ticket line?

[FredJohnson]

1 hour ago, TCMooch said:

cover up sexual assaults

Whoa whoa whoa whoa....whoa.................................whoa.

Allegedly.

[MacGyver]

Quote

Winning teams typically have a winning culture

Full stop...

[Pewterschmidt]

21 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

Whoa whoa whoa whoa....whoa.................................whoa.

Allegedly.

Have there been sexual assault allegations, or are we speculating this.

(don't trust a word out of Nordie's mouth) 

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Outskated said:

Maybe Guerin asked him to stop doing something and he didn't stop and disobeyed direct orders? Guerin was surely in a fowl mood with all the losing and maybe lashed out?  It was a risky career move to make a move to try and get a guy with as much power as Guerin fired.  Sounds like he got some bad advice.  Hopefully Russo can share more details when the time comes.  Best case scenario is Guerin and Heydt mend fences, but that seems unlikely at this point.  

I think they can mend fences. Here's the thing that most people have to learn about Guerin: He takes losing hard. He's probably a wonderful guy to work for when the team is winning, but not so much when they are losing. 

You mentioned the fowl mood. I can see that, and any passionate competitor is going to be like that. With Heydt, my guess is that this situation is not isolated. 

You've got to know your boss. Some times, it's best not to bring something to his attention at some precise moment and wait until he settles down a bit. Sometimes you have to, and with logistics, say, trading out Addison and gaining Bogosian, the logistics guy has got to move fast and get the player here asap. Sometimes, Guerin has to sign off on this stuff regardless of mood.  

And, this whole thing is not about an iron fist. Shooter is not a control freak. If he were, Judd wouldn't be calling the draft. Shooter is a fierce competitor who doesn't like to lose. I'm sure he lets expletives fly pretty regularly too. He's also got trigger topics. Learn them! 

But, even beneath those things, he truly cares about his people. Where is the evidence? Look at how many Fenton holdovers he has kept. He tries to find roles outside of the organization for players who just don't work out, a good situation for them instead of the best draft pick possible. Guys who left to go work for Fletcher, he let them go. Even though Shooter barks a lot, he still loves his people. I'm sure that whatever happened between him and Heydt, he will tell him he didn't mean it the way it was taken and may have just been blowing off steam. 

We're all flawed in different ways. This appears to be more of a flawed part of Guerin's personality, but one that people can work with. One thing that might be investigated is how much happier people are under Guerin vs. Fenton.

[MacGyver]

I'll play devils advocate here. You could be right maybe they will kiss and make up but I will throw this out there. Maybe this has been going on for some time and Heydt just decided to take the step of going to HR as a last resort. These are both professional grown men. Going to HR to file a formal complaint against your boss is something one does not take lightly and I doubt it was done in the heat of the moment after one isolated instance. I doubt Heydt likes losing anymore than Guerin but you have to learn how to handle it like an adult and a professional. Particularly when you are in a high profile position like the GM of a professional sports franchise. You are not going to win them all. 

Lets not forget Heydt is the players guy much more than Billy is and the reports were some of the players were very upset about this. There might be forgive and forget exchanges and we will hear all is once again tranquil in the front office. But I promise you these things stick in the back of the minds for everyone involved for a long, long time. 

[Up North Guy]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Have there been sexual assault allegations, or are we speculating this.

(don't trust a word out of Nordie's mouth) 

That is one thing i have heard nothing about and unless there is strong evidence I hope we can keep that out of the discussion. We are talking huge firestorm here and no one on this forum needs that.

[Sviginak]

 I believe the sexual assault cover up mentioned by Mooch was when Guerin was with Pittsburgh. He was the AGM which meant he was GM of the AHL team. The coach of said team made an (alleged)untoward pass(?) on the assistant coaches wife on a cab ride home after a dinner out. The asst coach told Guerin a couple years(?) later about the pass at the NHL draft. Guerin asked him not to talk about it, which kind of made sense in that they were in a room with 20 or so front office people from all the NHL teams. Guerin brought in HR and I believe the offending person was relieved of his duties. Later still the asst coach was let go during the pandemic. Guerin was with the Wild by then. The asst coach and his wife sued the Pens and included Guerin in the suit along with others in the org at the time. They might have settled because it kind of disappeared from the news. Opinions may vary…..

[Tony Abbott]

4 hours ago, Outskated said:

Look, no one truly knows what happened with Heydt and Guerin except those two, HR and the lawyers.  Maybe Guerin asked him to stop doing something and he didn't stop and disobeyed direct orders? Guerin was surely in a fowl mood with all the losing and maybe lashed out?  It was a risky career move to make a move to try and get a guy with as much power as Guerin fired.  Sounds like he got some bad advice.  Hopefully Russo can share more details when the time comes.  Best case scenario is Guerin and Heydt mend fences, but that seems unlikely at this point.  

Heydt had, by all accounts, a paranoid, unpleasant, unstable GM as his boss in Fenton, and he didn't do anything like this then. It's also not like Guerin seems particularly willing to defend himself.

[Tony Abbott]

Players also being on Heydt's side makes it seem like this is a big deal.

[FredJohnson]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Have there been sexual assault allegations, or are we speculating this.

(don't trust a word out of Nordie's mouth) 

Twisting reports: Guerin allegedly told a coach in the Penguins org (AHL) to keep his wife's sexual assault by another coach private.

[Sviginak]

33 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

Twisting reports: Guerin allegedly told a coach in the Penguins org (AHL) to keep his wife's sexual assault by another coach private.

It was at the NHL draft where he told Guerin. It was probably good career advice or personal advice to not broadcast something like that to the 1,000 people in the room. If he told ten people the rest would have heard about it soon after.

[FredJohnson]

2 hours ago, Sviginak said:

It was at the NHL draft where he told Guerin. It was probably good career advice or personal advice to not broadcast something like that to the 1,000 people in the room. If he told ten people the rest would have heard about it soon after.

Thanks for the details. 👍

[Outskated]

14 hours ago, Tony Abbott said:

Heydt had, by all accounts, a paranoid, unpleasant, unstable GM as his boss in Fenton, and he didn't do anything like this then. It's also not like Guerin seems particularly willing to defend himself.

The question is, was there one maniacal episode or a pattern of behavior that caused him to go to HR?  Still, it was a very risky career move to take on a GM with as much power as Guerin has.  The ultimate decider on his fate is Leipold and it didn't seem like he was willing to destroy his entire hockey ops team based on  a complaint from one guy.  I can understand why the players all love Heydt, he does everything to make their lives easier so they can focus on hockey and from all accounts is a great guy.  

[Disco Strangler]

12 hours ago, FredJohnson said:

Thanks for the details. 👍

You'll have to check out Penthouse forum if you want the full details.

[Disco Strangler]

59 minutes ago, Outskated said:

The question is, was there one maniacal episode or a pattern of behavior that caused him to go to HR?  Still, it was a very risky career move to take on a GM with as much power as Guerin has.  The ultimate decider on his fate is Leipold and it didn't seem like he was willing to destroy his entire hockey ops team based on  a complaint from one guy.  I can understand why the players all love Heydt, he does everything to make their lives easier so they can focus on hockey and from all accounts is a great guy.  

And so O'Hearn was the fall guy...

[MacGyver]

Is Heydt still with the team or is he gone as well? I don't have an Athletic subscription and reporting on this matter seems to be deep sixed anyhow but I read on a different forum Heydt is no longer with the team.  They really need to just come clean on this and air it out and be done with it. 

[FredJohnson]

2 hours ago, Disco Strangler said:

You'll have to check out Penthouse forum if you want the full details.

I never thought it'd happen to me...