Despite persistent rumors that the Minnesota Wild would be among the teams to make a splashy trade ahead of Friday's deadline, the team mostly stood pat.
There were a few smaller deals -- smaller in the context of the behemoth we were all waiting for -- but the Wild ended up hanging onto every single one of its top remaining trade assets. David Jiricek was the biggest name moved, and the most notable addition was Nick Foligno, who gets to reunite with his brother Marcus.
What didn't happen was the Wild acquiring a top center, something everyone assumed would be the case. Vincent Trocheck's name got white hot in the run-up to the deadline, but Minnesota cooled on a deal and refused to pay the steep price New York was asking.
After the deadline passed, Guerin spoke to the media about what the Wild did do but couldn't help bluntly addressing what the team didn't. Everyone thought a top center would be arriving in Minnesota, but with no such deal made, Guerin explained that sometimes being patient is the best strategy.
“There were some great players available but the asking prices were extremely high." Guerin said. "I feel like we strengthened our team in different ways. At some point in time you still have to be responsible and do the right things and sometimes patience pays off. Everybody was pissed off we didn’t do anything on July 1. But if we did something stupid on July 1, we never would have gotten Quinn Hughes.”
Bill Guerin is spot on in his defense of not overpaying for trade at the deadline
It's a bit anticlimactic for the Wild to have not pulled the trigger on a big trade, but Guerin is 100 percent right with his logic. As much as it would have helped the team this year to acquire someone like Vincent Trocheck, waiting to make a deal this summer always seemed like the best move for helping the team in the future.
And let's be clear, the future is now in Minnesota. Any deal that gets made will be done largely with two goals in mind: convincing Quinn Hughes to re-sign and actively competeing for a Stanley Cup.
Gone are the days of kicking the can down the road and hoping that things pan out. Guerin showed he's not afraid the be aggressive when he shipped a haul out to Vancouver to acquire Hughes but showed he won't blindly chase success with his restraint now.
Look at it this way. The Wild will still compete for a Stanley Cup this year (the team is really good) and will go into the key offseason with trade assets like Jesper Wallstedt, Charlie Stramel, Danila Yurov, and a first-round pick in next year's draft.
That's pretty darn good, and everything Guerin has done over the last 12 months suggests he's onthe right kind of heater to finally build a championship roster in Minnesota. The waiting might be the hardest part, but this time it feels worth it.