Bill Guerin’s next swing will be finding the Wild that elusive No. 1 center: 'We're in a window now'

AtlanticBruinsCanadiensLightningMaple LeafsPanthersRed WingsSabresSenatorsMetropolitanBlue JacketsCapitalsDevilsFlyersHurricanesIslandersPenguinsRangersCentralAvalancheBlackhawksBluesJetsMammothPredatorsStarsWildPacificCanucksDucksFlamesGolden KnightsKingsKrakenOilersSharksScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksNHL mock draftUFA big boardPlayoff bracketRed Light NewsletterBill Guerin’s next swing will be finding the Wild that elusive No. 1 center: ‘We’re in a window now’Bill Guerin and John Hynes meet the press for their season-ending availability. Michael Russo / The Athletic Share articleST. PAUL, Minn. — After Bill Guerin watched the Minnesota Wild’s no-show in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche, there was a certain word to describe his emotions. Guerin had seen his team — even without key players Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin — put together a surgical, dominating win in Game 3. That’s what they’re capable of, on a good day. “Playing like an elite team,” Guerin said. So while there was happiness in finally getting over the “hump” of the first round, Guerin said Monday at his end-of-season availability, this playoff exit was the “worst one.” “This one hurts the most because the reality, the real reality, of doing something special,” Guerin said. “So the pain is there, but we’ll get better because of it.” The Wild are oh-so close to becoming real Stanley Cup contenders for the first time in franchise history, especially since acquiring superstar Quinn Hughes in December. The plan, Guerin said, is to re-sign him this summer, one year away from unrestricted free agency. But, either way, Guerin realizes expectations are higher than they’ve ever been, and capitalizing on that will drive his aggressiveness in what should be an interesting summer. “We’re in a window now,” Guerin said. “We have a very good team. We want to make sure that we don’t just open the window three-quarters of the way. If there’s a chance for us to get better, we will.” You don’t need to have a job in the Wild front office to figure out what he means. Guerin swung for the fences to get Hughes, arguably one of the two best defensemen in the NHL. Now, for the 25th year in a row, his objective is to find a No. 1 center. Even if Eriksson Ek had been available in the second round, the Wild know they couldn’t have contended with the Avs’ center. Finding that No. 1 center will be impossible in this weak free agent class. Whether one can be unearthed on the trade market remains to be seen, but Guerin made it clear Monday that he will do his best. “The talk here is always a No. 1 center,” Guerin said. “Obviously … we’ll see what’s available. I can’t give you those answers today because we don’t know who’s going to be available, what’s going to be available. This is still fresh. “But I’ve shown you — and our fans, and everybody involved — that if there’s something out there that can make our team better, I am willing to do it, and I won’t sit on my hands.” The issue will be if the Wild have the trade chips. They dealt Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick to Vancouver for Hughes. They traded a number of draft picks for David Jiricek, then traded him to Philadelphia for Bobby Brink. They essentially threw away prospect Marat Khusnutdinov at the 2025 trade deadline, and he became a valuable player for the Boston Bruins this season. Acquiring an Auston Matthews, Robert Thomas or another true No. 1 center could mean mortgaging more of the future — a future first; a prospect like Danila Yurov, Charlie Stramel, Hunter Haight or Adam Benak; or even core roster pieces. The Wild’s most valuable trade chip may be goalie Jesper Wallstedt, but they might not consider using him as bait now that Guerin revealed Monday that Filip Gustavsson is having offseason hip surgery. “There’s always a way. There’s always a deal to be made,” Guerin said. Guerin and his staff will use the next few weeks to autopsy the season and determine which of the Wild’s pending free agents — guys like Marcus Johansson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Zach Bogosian and Nick Foligno — they want to return. He has publicly said he’d love to have potential free agents Mats Zuccarello and Michael McCarron back, and even though somebody out there is bound to throw a bunch of money at McCarron if he gets to July 1, Guerin said he’s going to make an early attempt. “I have time for everybody,” Guerin said. “What we can do and what we can’t do, we’ll figure that out down the road. A lot of guys had really good years. They’re good guys. They’re good teammates. But we have to figure out what’s going to be best for us moving forward. We’re just not there right now.” “Priority one,” Guerin said, is re-signing Hughes, with the superstar defenseman eligible for an extension July 1, one year ahead of unrestricted free agency. Hughes sounded interested in getting a deal done with Minnesota this summer, talking about how much he likes the team, the area and how he “trusts” Guerin in building a championship team. “We loved having Quinn,” Guerin said. “He’s so dialed into what’s going on here. He likes it here. He likes the team. The impact he had on our team was incredible.” Guerin said they have an “incredible core of young players” to build around, but it’ll be interesting to see if any long-time members of the veteran core are moved this summer to take that big swing. There’s more flexibility in terms of trade protection with Jared Spurgeon, Brodin, Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno and Jake Middleton. The absence of Brodin and Eriksson Ek during the series with Colorado certainly showed their value to the team. And even while it’s frustrating to the Wild that these shutdown players often end up hurt, especially around the playoffs, Guerin isn’t in a rush to part with them. “It’s frustrating, but they get injured because they play hard,” Guerin said. “They do the right things. Sometimes, it’s bad luck. (Brodin) gets hit in the foot with a shot that, maybe eight times out of 10, it’s fine. The other two times, you break a bone in your foot. (Eriksson Ek) was a little more frustrating to me because it was after a whistle, and he just falls. I was going out of my mind. I’m like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ “Those things are unlucky and they’re unfortunate, but I just don’t see us being as good without those guys on our roster.” While the roster will likely get some amount of makeover, the Wild coaching staff will remain intact, Guerin confirmed on Monday. Guerin talked about how much belief he has in John Hynes, who will enter his third full season with Minnesota. Guerin pointed to how Hynes’ attention to details, preparation and messaging are all “lights out,” and said he saw what the team is capable of when they follow the game plan in Game 3 — and when they don’t in Game 4. “I think over the course of the season, if I look at our group, when we came off emotional wins, a big win even in the regular season, we didn’t follow it up with a good game,” Hynes said Monday. “We had a big emotional win in Game 3. We didn’t follow it up in Game 4.” Hynes said he wants to figure out why that is and will keep an eye on fending that off next season. He also wants to take another deep dive into why the Wild’s penalty kill always seems to fail them in the playoffs. “Since the playoffs have been over, that’s another big topic,” Hynes said. “We’ve got to coach them better. The players have to execute them better. It’s going to be a lot of time again on that. We don’t take it lightly. Maybe we have to tweak some things. There’s going to be some details to it. It could be looking at a couple different guys on the kill. It’s certainly something that you’re diving into.” Any personnel changes will, of course, depend on who’s on the roster. Guerin pointed out that the Wild have cap space and assets to make moves, but it’s certainly not unlimited. Minnesota has about $15 million in cap space, and that doesn’t include the eight pending UFAs, several of whom will no doubt get offers to come back. It also doesn’t include re-signing restricted free agents Brink and Daemon Hunt. The cap space is obviously tightened by Kaprizov’s megadeal kicking in next season at $17 million annually. Whether a potential Hughes extension would come in under that remains to be seen, but it would be at a big-time number that’d start when the cap goes up to $113.5 million for the 2027-28 season. That’s partly why Guerin said their window is now. They won’t have Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy on bargain contracts forever, and they’ll eventually have to ante up on Wallstedt next summer as an RFA if he continues to show No. 1 qualities. Guerin has said for years that losing in the second, third or fourth round is just as painful as the first. But he feels the Wild showed in Game 3 what they were made of. That’s why he was so angry after Game 4’s no-show at home and the meltdown late in Game 5, when the Wild blew a 3-0 lead. “When we play our game — when we do the things that we’re supposed to do, play our game, the way we’re built, not the game you want to play, the game we need to play — when we do that, we’re very, very hard to beat. “And in Game 3, I saw our team do that. And that game wasn’t close. And then I saw in Game 4, a complete 180. And you saw the result. It wasn’t close the other way. … In 48 hours, going from a well-oiled machine that played great, did all the things right, to going to 48 hours later not doing those things, I think that’s something that we’re all going to need to learn from.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms