Optimism wasn’t a word you would’ve associated with the Minnesota Wild at the beginning of the season, however general manager Bill Guerin has done an admirable job putting his stamp on the organization since being hired late in the summer.
Don’t look now, but his team is now among the hottest clubs in the NHL and on the cusp of a playoff spot.
Guerin didn’t make mass changes immediately upon his arrival in Minnesota, instead taking a measured approach to analyzing the personnel with which he had to work.
A 4-9-1 start to the season was a likely indication that organizational modifications were inevitable and in mid-February Guerin traded longtime Wild forward Jason Zucker to the Penguins and fired head coach Bruce Boudreau in a span of four days.
“There were a couple moves that I felt we needed to make and I felt we were going to get good return for Jason (Alex Galchenyuk, Calen Addison and a conditional 2020 first-round pick) and both sides were happy in that trade,” the Wild general manager said Wednesday during an appearance on Hockey Central. “I felt we needed a new voice behind the bench, so we did that.
“Other than that, I collaborate with a lot of guys in our organization, and the feeling is that this is a good team and we have good players and they’re all signed for next year. We didn’t want to rush into anything just to do something and if we stood our ground and stood pat and didn’t do anything we’d still have a good team and it’s just a matter of pushing through and trying to make the playoffs with this group. I think it paid off. … I’m pretty confident in this group that we have right now and they’re playing great and the guys are working real hard.”
The Wild lost their first game following Boudreau’s dismissal but in the eight games since they’ve gone 6-2-0 while averaging more than 4.1 goals per game. In fact, since they hold two games in hand on the Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota control its own destiny with 16 games remaining on its schedule.
Former Wild GM Paul Fenton certainly made a few questionable transactions during his brief tenure with the team, but trading Mikael Granlund and his $5.75-million cap hit to the Predators in exchange for Kevin Fiala has worked out remarkably well for the Wild.
“Kevin’s just got to another level,” Guerin said. “It’s amazing what confidence can do for you. At the beginning of the year I just don’t think Kevin was confident. I don’t think he was sure of his place on the team. Something happened. Something clicked and he has been absolutely on fire lately. You can just see it in him. He wants to be a difference maker in the games and he wants the puck on his stick all the time and, look, he’s playing his best hockey when we need him to the most and that’s great for us.”
The 11th-overall pick from the 2014 NHL Draft has 12 goals and 23 points in his past 15 games, was recently named the league’s First Star of the Week, and posterized his former teammate Ryan Ellis when he scored his 21st of the season Tuesday night.
“I really like being able to set the tone for the way we work, for the way we do things in Minnesota and even within the office,” Guerin said of his first season as a GM. “What’s the environment like in the office? What’s the environment like for our scouting staff [and] in our meetings and stuff like that. I really like being able to set the tone for those things.”
Guerin added that there will likely be more changes in the off-season, yet the breadth of the changes could greatly depend on how the remainder of the season plays out as well as anything that might happen before the June draft.
“We’re going to take it step by step but absolutely there’s going to have to be some change somewhere within the organization and we’re just going to try to move forward,” added Guerin, who said the recent GM meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., were an educational experience for him.
The Wild are set to begin a three-game California road trip starting Thursday in San Jose before back-to-back weekend contests against the Kings and Ducks.
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