ST. PAUL -- As the Minnesota Wild officially put a bow on the 2022-23 season Tuesday afternoon, general manager Bill Guerin pushed back on the narrative that has long surrounded the organization. In his eyes, the fact that the Wild haven’t been out of the first round of the playoffs since 2015 shouldn’t be the main focus.
“They’re not going to put our name on the Stanley Cup if we get to the second round,” he said. “They’re not going to get us a ring. You know what? That’s not our goal.”
What is the goal?
“We don’t sit here and say, ‘Oh god, we just want to win a round,'” Guerin said. “We want to win the Stanley Cup.”
As much as Guerin understands that, yes, the Wild must get out of the first round to do that, his point is that this particular group has nothing to do with the disappointment over much of the past decade.
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“We have a lot of young players who are just getting going and they weren’t a part of that,” Guerin said. “We’re going to write our own narrative. That’s not the narrative for this team. I refuse to hold our players that are new here responsible for what’s happened in the past.”
Looking at the present, the Wild have made the playoffs in each of the past couple of seasons only to get bounced in the first round. They lost to the St. Louis Blues last season after leading 2-1 in the series, then the Dallas Stars this season after again leading 2-1 in series.
Maybe things would have gone differently if Joel Eriksson Ek hadn’t broken his leg, or if Kirill Kaprizov wasn’t rusty, or if Matt Boldy was more effective. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference because many of the same issues that plagued the Wild against the Blues last season — the struggles on special teams probably top the list — proved to be a problem against the Stars this season.
“The thing that bothered me is that there were reoccurring issues,” Guerin said. “We’re still learning, and we have to get better in certain situations.”
Asked how the Wild can fix things on the fly, Guerin acknowledged the reality that it will be difficult with the contract buyouts of former stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter set to take up a combined $14.7 million in dead cap for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
“I think our players and our coaches deserve a lot of credit,” Guerin said. “They’re fighting with one hand tied behind their back because of these cap constraints.”
To be clear, Guerin doesn’t regret the decision to move on from Parise and Suter. He felt it was important to turn the page on that chapter, and in a lot of ways, the Wild have been better in the aftermath of the buyouts. Now they have to find a way to get over the hump.
“We’re going to move forward and keep trying to get better and continue to try to build a team that can compete for a championship,” Guerin said. “I think we’re doing a lot of good things on and off the ice, and someday we’ll get there.”
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In the meantime, Guerin has his hands full trying to balance the books. He has a little more than $8 million in cap space to work with this offseason.
That’s not much considering a handful of players are in search of a new contract, namely Filip Gustavsson, who established himself as a potential No. 1 goaltender this season. Some pending unrestricted free agents include Matt Dumba, Ryan Reaves, Gus Nyquist, John Klingberg and Oskar Sundqvist.
As the next few weeks progress, Guerin will formulate a plan of attack for the coming months. He’s still working through some of the details with the rest of the front office. If anything is clear at this point, though, it’s that Guerin has no interest in taking a step back next season.
There’s still a way to build a Stanley Cup contender despite the cap constraints, and Guerin believes he can do that.
“Maybe people think I’m in La La Land thinking that we can win,” he said. “We’ve been a good team and it’s just a matter of putting it together at the right time.”
There were steps in the right direction this season even if it ended in disappointment once again.
“Did we reach our ultimate goal? We did not,” Guerin said. “But this season is not a failure.”
All part of the process that goes into making it past the first round and beyond.
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