Jump to content
Hockey Wilderness Zone Coverage Property
  • Guerin Used Octane Booster When the Wild Needed Premium Gas


    Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
    Tom Schreier

    If you’re one of those maniacs who bought an exotic sports car at a dealership off Highway 100 and raced it down 394, you’re probably familiar with octane booster. But most drivers probably are not. Fuel octane booster is a liquid additive that increases the octane level in gasoline. Accidentally put regular gas in your Ferrari? No problem. Drop a little Diamond nano-lube in the tank, and you’ll be running on premium. Gone are the knocks and pings. Your engine won’t die a sad and untimely death.

    There are different kinds of octane boosters. Some of them permanently increase the octane count of gasoline. Others, like NOS (nitrous oxide), give it a powerful temporary boost. Octane boosters increase engine power and reduce heat and emissions. But it doesn’t add horsepower. Instead, it increases the compression ratio in the engine. A higher compression ratio means better horsepower; better horsepower means more efficient horsepower, which affects the vehicle’s performance. It’s one way to get a jump when you step on the gas pedal. 

    Another is to use the right kind of gasoline.

    Bill Guerin used octane booster this year. He and the Minnesota Wild had the No. 1 prospect pool in the nation to work with. But prospects are like crude oil. They need refining. Teams cannot plug in a player without developing him and expect positive results. The best organizations know how to develop their prospects and work them onto the NHL roster. Unfortunately, the Wild haven’t figured out how to do that yet. 

    They brought Marco Rossi up for 16 games to start the season and banished him to Iowa’s cornfields. Rossi got three games at the end of the season when Minnesota had to play him out of necessity, but they didn’t prepare him for the playoffs. Consequently, they entered the postseason without a bona fide Top-6 center after Joel Eriksson Ek’s injury. Unsurprisingly, Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy were unproductive, with a right-winger and a Bottom-6 player centering their lines. 

    Similarly, they could have used Calen Addison on their ineffective power play. But the Wild traded for John Klingberg, a player the Dallas Stars had let walk in free agency, at the deadline. Klingberg’s arrival signaled that Minnesota had become disenchanted with Addison, which is curious given that they had traded for him three years ago. Furthermore, they should have known exactly what they were getting in him. Guerin took the Wild GM job in 2019 after previously working with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who drafted Addison. Why would Guerin trade Zucker, a former 30-goal scorer, for Addison if he didn’t see upside? And, more pertinently, why haven’t the Wild been able to tap into it?

    Oil refinery is a long process. Workers have to drill it out of the ground, then send it in a pipeline to nearby refineries. In the refinery, the crude oil undergoes analytical testing before they ultra-heat it to a boiling point and separate it into liquids and gasses. Then they ship it to its final destination. With the No. 1 prospect pool in the NHL, the Wild are sitting on oil. But they seemingly gave up on the process this year. Instead of distilling the crude oil they have, they went to Holiday, filled up with 87, and hit the NOS at the deadline.

    Minnesota’s post-deadline run catalyzed a belief that it could win in the playoffs. The trade deadline was on March 3, and the Wild entered their March 4 game at the Calgary Flames with a 36-21-6 record. They were hovering around the playoff bubble when Kaprizov left the Winnipeg Jets game on March 8 with an injury that kept him out for a month. Still, the Wild went on a 10-5-6 run from March 4 to the end of the season; Kaprizov only played in three of those games. Guerin’s deadline acquisitions fueled it. A rejuvenated Marcus Johansson joined Matt Boldy on the second line, and Boldy scored 12 goals in March. Klingberg rounded out the top-4 defensive pairs. Oskar Sundqvist provided depth, and Gustav Nyquist was productive when he returned from injury. 

    But the deadline moves were nothing more than a dose of NOS as the Wild raced toward the Central Division title. They fell apart once the octane booster wore out. But they also came up short of winning the division title because they lost many games they should have won during that stretch. 

    1-0 in a shootout to the Calgary Flames, who missed the playoffs for the second time in three years and fired Darryl Sutter.

    5-4 in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes in a college hockey arena.

    5-4 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers, who missed the playoffs and fired old friend Chuck Fletcher.

    4-1 to a Pittsburgh Penguins team that missed the playoffs for the first time in 16 years and fired everybody.

    At the time, we should have realized that the late-season push was misleading. In hindsight, Minnesota’s first-round playoff exit was pretty predictable. They didn’t have any Top 6 centers once Eriksson Ek got injured. Therefore, they had Kaprizov playing with a right wing as his pivot and paired Boldy with a Bottom 6 center. The Wild played undisciplined hockey. Dean Evason doesn’t seem to love coaching young players and hasn’t won in the playoffs at any level. Pete DeBoer already had the blueprint on how to outcoach him. Why should we have expected a different result?

    Worse yet? They don’t seem to get why another first-round exit is a disappointing result, and it seems unlikely that they’ll have any better luck integrating young players onto the roster next year. Guerin bristled at the notion that the Wild have a reputation for failing to get out of the first round, even though he inherited a team that hadn’t gotten out of the first round since 2015. He said that the players and coaching staff were playing with one hand tied behind their backs, which is the result of his decision to buy out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter

    Guerin got testy with a reporter in his final press conference of the season after the reporter pointed out that the Wild had to get past the first round to reach the Stanley Cup. The Wild aren’t going to go anywhere until they take accountability for what happened this season. Guerin chose to buy out two expensive players. The organization buried Rossi, a talented center prospect in Iowa. They stuck Addison in the rafters so often that he can probably write a gamer on deadline. 

    The Wild were a Ferrari running on Holiday gas with a bit of nitrous oxide mixed in. They weren’t burning premium fuel, and the engine shut down once the nitrous wore off. Dallas wasn’t that much of a better team than the Wild. Minnesota just broke down. And they will continue to do so until they can better tap into their prospect pool.

    Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we'll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form.

    • Like 1

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Featured Comments

    I really love the metaphor. However, according to Guerin, the prospect pool simply wasn't ready yet. Rossi was sent down, and essentially stayed there. He deserved to stay there, he played himself into position to stay there. His eye test up here and down there has been kind of ugly. So, instead of doing a model overhaul that wasn't ready yet, the Guerin R&D department delayed the new roll out at center. Small sample size, but it seems like the engineers of the Wild may have finally gotten it right.

    Calen "Ole" Addison was another curious move. What happened behind the scenes? Well, a -18 on the scoresheet suggested his engine was misfiring. He did however accomplish more goals for everyone else on the ice, regardless of team. At first he was sent to the rafters for a realignment, but after mouthing off and showing in subsequent play that he had learned nothing, the Wild parked him in the garage for a complete overhaul. Maybe we get a muscle car out of him next year, but I doubt it, he still appears to be a Prius.

    Guerin also traded for Addison while he was in jr. There is an expectation of growth in the game, especially on the defensive side once a player graduates from there. In Addison's final season there, his team didn't even make the playoffs. We may have seen the writing on the wall for him late last season when he was put on the 3rd pairing.....in Iowa. His attitude shows no interest in the defensive part of the game, at least the harder defensive part, he shows no interest in initiating contact (and what Prius would), and he systematically gets taken out of plays on defense as he gets clobbered behind the play leaving Merrill mostly helpless to defend against everyone else, and Merrill isn't the best out there either.

    While our prospect pool is rated #1 in the league, that doesn't necessarily mean they are that close. The Wall needs another season, as does O'Rourke and Hunt in Iowa. Lambos and Peart haven't even gotten there yet. Same with Spacek and Masters. All of them need a little more beef. Faber made the jump but also needs about 10 lbs. of strength. I'd say Beckman and Walker are the closest of the forwards. Beckman improved a lot this season. Walker seemed to hit a wall in February and dropped off.  

    All these players, except for Faber did not pass inspection and could not have their models released just yet. And, it appears that even Shooter may have lost some patients with the R&D department by not renewing their contracts for next season. So, we had to go 1 or 2 more years on the older models which should have been redesigned already.  

    I don't think our gas was the problem, here, I think we got caught up in a technology problem with the new models. Once we work the kinks out of that, we'll be fine. Maybe, just maybe, we can partner with another brand to bring in what we really need, developed centers.

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    It's confusing when Guerin loses his composure (negative Fiala statements last year while actively shopping Fiala, this year end press conference)

    He's a proven winner as a player whose been thru the battles and has the character/grit/perseverence to over come.

    To see him go full mean girl when asked questions by a reporter doesn't sync with who I think he is.

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

    It's confusing when Guerin loses his composure (negative Fiala statements last year while actively shopping Fiala, this year end press conference)

    To see him go full mean girl when asked questions by a reporter doesn't sync with who I think he is.

    He lacks communication skills, which is really bad for someone in his position, and that frustrates him which turns into anger. He's a Mike Tice junior, but Mike never lost his temper, he was a good soul, he fought the frustration of not getting his point across. That's my take on it anyway.

    I really worry this will prevent him from being successful. Time will tell.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    6 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

    He lacks communication skills, which is really bad for someone in his position, and that frustrates him which turns into anger. He's a Mike Tice junior, but Mike never lost his temper, he was a good soul, he fought the frustration of not getting his point across. That's my take on it anyway.

    I really worry this will prevent him from being successful. Time will tell.

    I’m beginning to think this may be the case.  Maybe it’s not a fatal flaw that’ll keep him from assessing player talent properly, but may be fatal flaw as the leader of the organization.  
     

    seems like he shouldn’t be making these mistakes into a microphone at this point in his career

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I've liked Guerin better than the others but he is still a relatively new GM. He's made some mistakes but it's not horrible. I think there's plenty of room to improve. The pressure should increase as you've had time to make changes and build. I think Guerin has done really well with the roster and strategies but on the PR side it's been rough. 

    For example, at the beginning of the year they promote Addison and Rossi in a PR video and then both players kinda didn't make it after all. That wasn't a good look and I said at the time, which is it, are they ready or not? Weird, but both players really didn't perform as productive offensive and defensive guys. Addison can run the PP pretty well but that's it. 

    Finally the "Grit" video and subsequent playoff fizzle. This is a bad look and going into difficult years now with what I would describe as a leveling in the Wild's positive trajectory. It's never been able to spike up over round one but the cap and timing now forces GMBG to begin looking at what prospects are ready and it's not such a sure thing. 

    Answering questions about being lovers when you're promoting yourselves as winners can be tough. I think the Wild need to keep expectations down and keep their mouths shut and keep trying to get better. Show the progress in what you do. Talk is cheap. Guerin should know winning cures everything. When you lose and languish there's gonna be criticism. 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Guerin is arrogant GM who does not accept any criticism. He came with agenda to “change the attitude of the Wild” while what was needed is to improve the team. Even if buyouts were needed (that I highly doubt) with them he put the team on at least 4 years of hold. He screwed up with Fiala (last chance for this team to be at least entertaining). If u subtract Kaprisov which presents has absolutely nothing to do with Guerin this team is worse that the one he inherited. But the worst part from all of this that Wild has a very strong chance loose Kaprisov soon. With what Guerin is doing I don’t see any reasons for Kaprisov to stay. And with Kaprisov having no-trade clause starting after next season I don’t see why he should wait and request trade earlier. 

     

     

     

     

     

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Love- What were your expectations going into the season? What were your expectations on Guerin when he took over? Were you in the blow it up camp, or the just a couple more pieces camp?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    minfuninnc if this is question for me thank you very much. I am new to this forum and very happy to have conversations about Wild.

    my answers when the chronological order.

    1. When Guerin became a GM I was probably one of the few who was not on the “Billie we trust” thing. My expectations was that when unproven GM is coming to the team that make a playoff almost each season before his appearance is not to try to break everything but at least try to see if what can be done to move team to the next level.

    2. For this season my expectation was that Wild will miss playoffs. I thought that they will not be able to score and they became much less talented. I still think I was right on that. I did not expect them to become 2:1 team basically getting back to Lemaire style

    3. The only option now is 1. bring young players 2.Find center for Kaprisov even if this will require to trade half or the team. Wild will not be able to win anyway but they should create line which support their star. Then he may sign with you next contract and with salary cap gone Wild will be able to move forward.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    ^^^

    I think this is a pretty good way of looking at things. It really doesn't matter who liked Guerin before getting hired. To this point he's avoided being burdened with any new bad contracts. Compared to previous GMs this has to be considered a win. Sure he's made some controversial decisions like the buyouts but he hasn't given away picks and prospects. A few future considerations here and there but overall adding some picks or gaining back through trades for what was given up elsewhere for a net positive drafting. No doubt they identified that as an issue coming in after Fenton. 

    Continuing to make the playoffs has always been a double-edged sword for MN. I keep beating the drum about drafting and cite examples of good players picked around 20th. The Wild just never get one. Bill Guerin has managed to turn a floundering Wild club under Fenton with zero direction into a perennial playoff team who gets more than expected from mid-level talent.

    There is still an obvious lack of talented young players emerging because of the results of 2016-2022 draft years. Boldy made it but everyone else who didn't or who the Wild are still waiting for have inhibited progress apart from a big trade. Using Dumba as our own rental wasn't bad especially because I don't think there was a lot of big offers coming in.

    I believe the Wild need to continue to find guys like Nyqvuist and Johannsossn to keep filling holes with affordable veterans. Meanwhile the search and timing needs to arrive at a realistic center solution the Wild can afford. Trading a player to get a top line center isn't easy because of the lack of results from the draft. Guerin is in an impossible position. Regardless of the buyouts, Parise & Suter aren't centers. Kunin never materialized, Sturm was not a top line guy, and Rossi hasn't shown NHL translation. So with or without cap penalties, with or without Fiala the Wild don't have a center solution. The draft is where that talent should have some from. Since the Wild haven't got it, there's good reason for GMBG to be testy. He's getting to a stage where the progress is stagnating. It's reflecting poorly on him even though he's still being handicapped by previous GMs which I imagine is frustrating when you're in the midst of a current shortfall. What have you done for me lately is a question he should be prepared for. This is made into a big deal about arrogance or inability to accept criticism but in I think it's more of an urgency to produce that manifests as frustration when the rubber meets the road. The bottom line is the Wild lost, the coach and players didn't rise up and amaze everyone. The draft picks are languishing and the budget is tightening.

    I think Guerin has been able to make good deals and find solid players. I think as GM or as fans the continued patience is important. Like rungs on a ladder, you have to take it one step at a time. Kaprizov is still under contract and the Wild have a chance to get better before next season. There's facets of the team that are in very good shape. The GM could potentially do some tweaks and the Wild compete again to win the Central. I think the culture and organizational quality is there and it's gonna boil down to young players stepping up. For the Wild to get deeper down the middle, they are gonna need to make a big deal. We all want that to happen but not for an exorbitant cost or at the expense of depleting an aspect of the team. Patience necessary.

     

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites



    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...