Article: Bill Guerin's Future Is Rooted In the Present

[Chris Schad]

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[Citizen Strife]

Time will tell on Khusnutdinov (and Ohgren still).  But Khusnutdinov was nowhere close to beating out Gaudreau on the depth chart. If Ohgren or Yurov are anything, they will beat out 7 pts in 55-60 games.  I don't like keeping Hartman over Khusnutdinov to open a Yurov slot, but such is life.

Jiricek just has to be patient.  Merrill will be gone, so there is Buium's slot.  The decision over Chisholm is what decides Jiricek's fate. Chisholm has been a good soldier, but you don't give up all that stuff to ride the bench.

 

 

 

[Pewterschmidt]

It makes pointing to the future seem like a crutch for a front office that should have built a foundation two or three years ago.

• agree.  I'm going to give Guerin a grade of C.  All his moves add up to a net neutral for me.
• Re: Nyquist - while I was optimistic at the signing because i thought we were getting Spring 2023 Nyquist.  Now I'm voting for us to let him walk this summer.  He's an upgrade over some of our other players who've auditioned in the middle 6 but he's pretty much a nothing burger at this point

[OldDutchChip]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

It makes pointing to the future seem like a crutch for a front office that should have built a foundation two or three years ago.

• agree.  I'm going to give Guerin a grade of C.  All his moves add up to a net neutral for me.
• Re: Nyquist - while I was optimistic at the signing because i thought we were getting Spring 2023 Nyquist.  Now I'm voting for us to let him walk this summer.  He's an upgrade over some of our other players who've auditioned in the middle 6 but he's pretty much a nothing burger at this point

I grade him a D - only because Kap is still on our roster and maybe kap loves minny misery as much as rest of us and will sign?

Bill does not deserve any grade higher

we are in the worse position imaginable right now and he had 6 years to prep

there is no plan, and likely no way out

[Imyourhuckleberry]

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

But Khusnutdinov was nowhere close to beating out Gaudreau on the depth chart. If Ohgren or Yurov are anything, they will beat out 7 pts in 55-60 games.  I don't like keeping Hartman over Khusnutdinov to open a Yurov slot, but such is life.

Jiricek just has to be patient.  Merrill will be gone, so there is Buium's slot.  The decision over Chisholm is what decides Jiricek's fate. Chisholm has been a good soldier, but you don't give up all that stuff to ride the bench.

Hartman is a more complete player than Khusnutdinov, so I certainly don't mind keeping him around over Marat.

Agree with the rest. Nyquist hasn't produced yet, but still hoping he finds chemistry with someone on the Wild like he did the last time he was around.

If the Wild collect just half of the remaining points available to them in 17 games, which would be disappointing, they would finish with 95 points. For Calgary, or any team behind them, they would need to earn more than 63% of available standings points in order to reach 94 points. There are only 7 teams in the NHL who are currently over 63% in points% on the season.

As such, last night's win increased the chances of the postseason quite a bit. Hopefully the Wild do better than simply .500 play to close the season as it would be nice to get back to 100+ points as they did the 2 seasons prior to last year, a points pace they also exceeded in the 20-21 shortened season.

[greg]

I also give Guerin a d-.  Why for example do you trade for Jiricek and send him to Iowa to play then call him up to sit in the press box.  It's a joke.  Then we trade two players and a draft pick for a guy who hardly plays and was benched for the third period the other day.  We have traded away a lot of draft picks.  There isn't even a guarantee they make the playoffs but it's possible.  I don't really dislike guerin but he hasn't done much to build the team.  We are still a bottom feeder in the playoffs team that seems destined to be ousted in the first round again.

[MNCountryLife]

I'm not as pessimistic on BG.  I think he was dealing with a toxic locker room with  Suter in addition to two really bad contracts.  He has managed to keep the team in the playoffs while navigating cap hell.  When you are down 14M in cap you are missing at minimum 2 top 6 players.  That can be the difference between being a cup contender or not.  I would giver BG a flat "C" grade.  He has tread water.  Now he has cap room.  Spend it on true top 6 players.  Don't overpay for bottom 6.  If the player isn't available hold onto the cash until one does become available. Use your assets wisely.  Next season he will be out of excuses.  Fans will expect to be competitive in later rounds in a very good division.

[SkolWild73]

Just a couple of thughts about this article.

PuckPedia projects the Wild will have roughly $22 million in salary cap this offseason. However, we must factor in Kaprizov's eight-figure extension. Therefore, Minnesota will still have $10 to $12 million to spend, leaving Guering to fill in the pieces of a roster that has been one of the worst teams in hockey since the start of the calendar year.

Kap is signed through next year.  His extension has no bearing on our cap space this offseason.  Rossi's extension would, and if they decide to resign someone else (hopefully not). The number of $10 to $12M might be correct if they make some moves, I guess.

The Stars and Avalanche took the opposite approach, building the foundation and supplementing it with big free-agent moves. But while Guerin hypes up his future, it’s all about the present, satisfying this franchise’s desperation to get out of the first round.

What big free agent moves did the Stars make?  Of their top 15 scorers, they signed Mason Marchment Sam Steel and Matt Duchene as FA's.  Duchene was a huge pickup, after getting bought out by Nashville in 2023.  He was in such high demand that Dallas had to fork out a one year $3M contract.  Results were great but would not call him a big FA signing at the time. The rest of their team was through the draft and trades.

How about Colorado?  Same thing as Dallas, 3 FA signings among their top 15 scorers. First, Nichushkin all the way back after the 2019 season, a season where he scored 0G and 10A in 57 games for Dallas.  Second, Kirvanta, signed in 2023 after lighting it up with the Stars with 8G and 1 A in 70 games.  The last "Big" FA signing they had was Parker Kelly who they signed this year after 8G and 10 A in 80 games with Ottawa last year.  

Neither one of these teams went out and signed a big FA.  They signed small deals to players and filled in their gaps with players from their system and trades in Dallas case, or made a ton of trades like Colorado did.  Out of their top 15 scorers this year, only MacKinnon and Makar were drafted by the Avs.

The players we signed as FA's are Zucc, Hartman, Freddy G and Trenin. The rest are through the draft or via trade.  I would say we are building or have built the foundation with Kap, Boldy, Faber, Brodin, and Rossi with hopefully some young guns coming in next year.  I will have to wait and see what is done this offseason to add to the roster, but I would say the foundation is there.  

[OldDutchChip]

25 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

I'm not as pessimistic on BG.  I think he was dealing with a toxic locker room with  Suter in addition to two really bad contracts.  He has managed to keep the team in the playoffs while navigating cap hell.  When you are down 14M in cap you are missing at minimum 2 top 6 players.  That can be the difference between being a cup contender or not.  I would giver BG a flat "C" grade.  He has tread water.  Now he has cap room.  Spend it on true top 6 players.  Don't overpay for bottom 6.  If the player isn't available hold onto the cash until one does become available. Use your assets wisely.  Next season he will be out of excuses.  Fans will expect to be competitive in later rounds in a very good division.

When you are down 14M in cap you are missing at minimum 2 top 6 players. 
 

Small correction- the buy outs were tied solely to ZP and RS so it wasn’t an option for us to re-use the money. So minimum of 2 top 6 players only applies if you believe ZP and RS to be such. So the root issue is not the money but the players. 

[Scalptrash]

F - Trading first round picks for question marks is not how you build a team for the future. First round picks are for getting proven NHL players that can contribute immediately. The Wild got absolutely fleeced in the Brazeau trade. He is worth a third at best, with no other players involved. If you need to make room, then Marat straight up (still lopsided, he was a 2nd round pick), but he's more valuable to the future. Brazeau has no upside, he isn't going to get better, Marat will. Marat should have spent a full season in Iowa, minimum, he was thrown to the wolves.

[MNCountryLife]

8 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

Small correction- the buy outs were tied solely to ZP and RS so it wasn’t an option for us to re-use the money. So minimum of 2 top 6 players only applies if you believe ZP and RS to be such. So the root issue is not the money but the players. 

I think I get what you are saying.  I was valuing ZP and RS as being worth the $14M and top 6 players.  It's the idea of what you pay does not equate to performance or ROI.  

The will be an intriguing summer with BG having more money.  Will he actually be able to bring in top 6 talent or will he overspend.  He will make or break his reputation this summer.

[SkolWild73]

14 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

Trading first round picks for question marks is not how you build a team for the future.

He has traded one first round pick that I am aware of.  Next year's pick for a player that has playing time in the NHL already and is 21.