With no first round pick after the Quinn Hughes trade, it was hard for the Minnesota Wild to make a splash in the opening round of the NHL Draft. But Bill Guerin managed to find a way as he was honored as the winner of the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award on Friday night.
Guerin finished first in a tight race as his 131 points bested former Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland, who finished with 123 points. While MacFarland finished with 20 first-place votes to Guerin’s 14, Guerin was listed as a top-three selection on 37 of the 40 ballots to take home the award.
Although it is an accomplishment, it also puts pressure on Guerin to build on that success and set the Wild up for a big encore this summer.
Bill Guerin’s GM of the Year Award sets up critical offseason for Wild
The Hughes trade was the biggest move that Guerin made last season, but he made several others that helped him win the award. Signing Kirill Kaprizov to the largest contract in NHL history was a good start, but Guerin added several key players at the trade deadline including Michael McCarron, who re-signed with the Wild on a six-year deal earlier this month.
The real test for Guerin will come this summer. The Wild need a No. 1 center and many believe that Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin is their top target. But the Wild reportedly don’t have the assets to get a deal done and it could take a third team and a few more levers to be pulled to get Larkin or any other center to help fill that void.
The Wild also have holes to fill in their top six forwards. Mats Zuccarello and Vladimir Tarasenko are currently waiting to see if they’ll be able to return to Minnesota and fellow winger Marcus Johansson opted to return to his home country of Sweden earlier this month. Minnesota also has just $9.4 million in projected cap space according to Puckpedia, which could have the Wild on the lookout for alternative options or making deals involving some of their core pieces to create salary cap space.
This is a good problem to have after the Wild have been clouded in mediocrity for most of the history of the franchise. But it’s a difficult task for Guerin to pull off as the Wild get deeper into the offseason.
“Nothing’s ever off the table,” Guerin said after the first round concluded on Friday night via The Athletic’s Michael Russo. “We just want to make our teams better and do what’s right for our organizations. There’s a lot of time.”
While Guerin believes there’s a lot of time, the offseason may move quickly as free agency begins on Wednesday. But with some recognition under his belt, Guerin may be equipped to make the moves the Wild need and perhaps take another step forward when they hit the ice next season.
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