GM Bill Guerin opens up about Wild living in 'cap hell'

Bill Guerin isn't lowering expectations for the Minnesota Wild despite having 16% of the cap taken up by Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.

"I've always maintained that we have high expectations. The expectations every night are to win. The expectations every year are to win. I don't care what our situation is," Geurin said Tuesday in an interview with KFAN's Dan Barreiro in front of an in-studio audience. 

"We are going to come out of cap hell in two years," Guerin continued. "First of all, we are going to have players that we are going to need to sign. So some of that money in that $15 million will go to current players. So it's not just going to be a big spending spree that we just go shopping down the aisles."

Barreiro pushed back saying, "Well now you're lowering the expectations again. They [fans in attendance] want the big signings. People have been waiting for that."

"We will get signings," Guerin clarified. "I think the most important thing, though, is that we do it in a smart, educated way that we've done all of our other moves. We have to make sure that if we go out and make a big signing, it's got to be with the right guy. Because if we go out and spend foolishly, and we bring in the wrong people, then we can handicap ourselves again. 

"When this is over, yes, we do want to make significant steps. We absolutely do. Being free of these cap hits will help us, for sure. I hope I'm being clear. We are going to have to use that money for a lot of different people. But, if you are looking at our team, we will have a significant amount of money to spend and we are going to have to fill out our roster. I think you guys know, I'm pretty aggressive by nature and we want to win. So, we are going to keep moving methodically through these next two years and get the most out of everybody involved. And then, yeah, it'll be a good time."

In the two years since the Wild bought out Parise and Suter the NHL salary cap has risen by just $2 million. With the buyouts costing the Wild $14.7 million, according to Cap Friendly, Guerin's job of putting together a competitive roster has been seriously hampered. Asked if he would do anything differently about the buyouts given the opportunity, Guerin said "it wouldn't have changed my mind."

"It's unfortunate that we had this pandemic and it effected the revenues of the league preventing us from moving the salary cap up every year," Guerin said. "We forgot our crystal ball that day but we didn't see that one coming. I do think, even in this situation, we have been able to maneuver ourselves in a way that we keep a very competitive team on the ice. It's too bad we didn't get more relief than we have but I think next year we'll get a significant jump, as will everybody else in the league, but we'll take what we can get."

Has he ever been tempted to go full rebuild?

"No, not really, because when I got here there was too many good players to do it," Guerin answered. "This is where [Wild owner Craig Leipold] and I are arm in arm on this. We really don't have the stomach for it. I personally felt, coming into this, this isn't really a full tear down. Why would we get rid of Spurgeon? Brodin? Dumba? Foligno? And all these guys that we've kept. Zuccarello? If you're in a full rebuild does Kaprizov even sign here? Those are things we all have to think about. You see other teams doing it but that's a lot of pain too. It's not 2-3 years. It's like 7 to 10. You look at Ottawa. Ottawa has a good team, they've got a really good team. Buffalo has got a good team now. Look back at the last time they made the playoffs. Do you want to go through that?"

Guerin has been an aggressive dealer at trade deadline and free agency in his nearly four years in charge of the Wild. Asked if he was frustrating not being able to make moves during this summer's free agency, he said yes. 

"I want to help our team, I want to help them improve," answered Guerin. "That's my time to help and we just couldn't do it. I think our time will come when we're more active, with more cap space and more assets that we're willing to move. Right now I'm not willing to move assets. I'm not willing to move our young players. We've drafted more than any other team in the top three rounds the last couple years. I don't want to move those young players yet. I don't want to move those types of picks yet."

"Why are you so adamant on that," Barreiro interjected.

"Because that's our future," replied Guerin. "The timing's not right for the players that you trade to get... the player that you're getting we cannot afford to re-sign them right now. We don't have the room. If we had the room, and there was a guy out there that we like, then we'll get them and we'll sign him. But we can't right now."

Despite not being able to be as aggressive as he would like Guerin still was able to make some move, mainly around the edges of the roster. When asked about the signing that he thinks fans would like the most Guerin responded, "I think Patty Maroon."

"I think with the loss of [Ryan Reaves] it was important to reestablish that role," said Guerin. "I love his attitude. He doesn't care about anything. He's always involved. He's in the trenches all the time. He's an in-your-face player. He won three Stanley Cups in a row. There's something about him. I love his attitude, he's a gamer."

One of the biggest departures of the offseason for the Wild and Wild fans was longtime defenseman Matt Dumba becoming a free agent and signing with Arizona. Guerin said the club wasn't trying to trade Dumba at last season's trade deadline and "as for free agency, I don't know what happened. It's none of my business."

"Would we have liked to keep him? Yeah, sure, but we couldn't," Guerin said. "We can't. There's just no way. So I don't really sit here and try to figure it out because it just wasn't happening."