By Tom Schreier -
Bill Guerin had a unique reaction after signing Marco Rossi to a three-year, $15 million bridge deal on Friday.
“This might sound harsh,” he said, “but if you’re betting on yourself with 15 million dollars in your pocket, that’s a pretty good safety net.
“In this league now, we’re not really sending anybody to the poor house.”
Hopefully not, given that the players play in front of thousands of fans every night, and teams have multimillion-dollar television contracts. Still, while Rossi will be able to afford his mortgage and a European sports car, he’s probably still in Guerin’s doghouse.
If nothing else, we learned that a 23-year-old center who had 100 points in the past two seasons likely isn’t part of Minnesota’s long-term plans.
Guerin, a 6-foot-2, 220 lbs. power forward in his playing days, has always sought players in his likeness. It’s hard to argue with a player who won two Stanley Cups and played 18 years in the league. Still, a team made up solely of Bill Guerins won’t win anything. They still need stars.
Guerin was never the face of the franchise at his various stops. He was a Zach Parise type: a highly-skilled glue guy known for scoring greasy goals and offering a veteran presence late in his career.
However, he is the alpha and the omega in Minnesota. The Big Kahuna.
Arguably, the face of the franchise.
Kirill Kaprizov is Minnesota’s best player. Still, he’s a soft-spoken Russian, and Guerin is an irascible American. The Wild beat corps was ecstatic when Kaprizov started speaking in English. Meanwhile, they’d probably prefer that Guerin didn’t browbeat them when Minnesota repeatedly fails to get out of the first round, or has an uneventful trade deadline.
Guerin’s lack of temperamental restraint is indicative of his status within the Wild organization. In 2023, Minnesota promoted Guerin to president of hockey operations, even though his teams have never advanced past the first round.
It was likely an effort to promote continuity through the league’s oppressive cap penalties, and retaining a general manager should promote stability at a trying time. In the abstract, that makes sense. However, it appears to have enabled Guerin to tap into his volatile side without much reservation. He acts like someone who knows he won’t get fired.
There was the incident when Guerin lashed out at Cam Talbot and his agent (Cam Talbot!). He allegedly verbally abused a Wild employee and takes exception to media criticism. And while he tried putting out fires during Rossi's negotiations in July, rumors about his future had been blazing in a fairly public manner for at least a year beforehand.
Perhaps this is what some fans want. A swaggering, alpha leader who is going to turn the Wild into a winner through force of will. More likely, people don’t care about Guerin’s methods, so long as he builds a winning team.
Still, the truth is that he hasn’t produced a team that can win in the playoffs yet, and his efforts during cap hell haven’t offered reassurances that he built a contender. Despite having a good young core, they still need two things to happen to have a competitive roster.
1) Kaprizov needs to re-sign and stay healthy throughout this extension.
2) Jesper Wallstedt, Danila Yurov, and Zeev Buium must pan out.
Nobody on the Wild drives winning more than Kaprizov. Still, expending him carries some injury risk. Craig Leipold has expressed his desire to extend Kaprizov, and Minnesota can offer him more money than any other team under league rules. However, nothing is guaranteed until Kaprizov signs on the dotted line.
Even with Kaprizov under contract, the Wild need Wallstedt, Yurov, and Buium to become contributors. They need a second goalie, and Wallstedt should have more upside than Filip Gustavsson. Minnesota needs Yurov to become a top-six center, given they aren’t committed to Rossi long term. And Buium must round out their defensive corps.
Perhaps the Wild’s strange handling of Rossi’s early development isn’t indicative of how they’ll manage their top prospects. However, they’ve already mishandled Wallstedt’s development, and he should be their franchise goalie.
More pertinently, perhaps Guerin will calmly and steadily handle Kaprizov’s contract extension. It's happened before. Guerin hammered out Joel Eriksson Ek's eight-year extension in a matter of three days. Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello, and Marcus Foligno all got their most recent deals wrapped up in an unacrimonious bow in one training camp. Ultimately, the negotiation should almost be a formality. Kaprizov hasn’t indicated that he wants to leave, and Mr. Leipold has stated that he wants to keep him in Minnesota.
Still, there’s probably going to be a unique dynamic in the negotiations. Guerin acts like the face of the franchise in Minnesota, or at least that he can do no wrong. So, what does that make Kaprizov? And will that affect how Guerin handles the most crucial contract extension in Wild history?
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