Tough choices are ahead for Minnesota Wild this summer
Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The veteran executive is looking to improve his hockey club this offseason but enters the summer with just $6.2 million in projected cap space.
Guerin is still being handcuffed by ‘dead’ money as Ryan Suter and Zach Parise’s buyouts are eating up $14.7 million of the Wild’s cap space. The 2024-25 season is the final year Guerin will have to navigate the hefty buyouts as it goes down to just $1.6 million combined for the final four seasons.
So, how exactly is Guerin going to upgrade his roster this offseason? The Wild finished the 2023-24 campaign with a 39-34-9 record, good for 87 points, however missed out on the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference by 11 points. Minnesota finished last season ranked 21st in goals-per-game and 30th with a 74.% penalty kill. It’s hard to win hockey games when you have trouble scoring and can’t be effective on special teams.
Guerin is likely looking at the trade route to improve his team this summer and there’s growing speculation goaltender Filip Gustavsson could be available. Minnesota re-signed Marc-Andre Fleury to a one-year deal and have top prospect Jesper Wallstedt who could be ready for a bigger NHL role next season.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen discussed what lies ahead for Guerin and the Wild and shed some light on what to expect out of Minnesota this summer:
Frank Seravalli: Let’s talk quickly about the Minnesota Wild and their summer ahead. Another interesting year for GM Bill Guerin and the waiting game, trying to wait out these significant contracts that you got on the books. The dead cap space from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. Not really much to make in terms of their pending free agents, they unloaded a bunch of guys at the trade deadline, guys that they would’ve had to make decisions on in.
Brandon Duhaime, Connor Dewar for instance, so they’re left with, you know, some RFA’s and UFA’s that aren’t incredibly impactful for their team, but I think the big question and the of the name of the game for the Minnesota Wild is Colby, is how can you find a way to improve on the margins with limited cap space at a time when you just missed the playoffs and you want to get back in there. You’ve got some tough choices to make.
Colby Cohen: Frank, I gotta tell you something, I do not envy Bill Guerin this year. When you’re talking about almost $15-million in dead cap space, I mean, both cap hits are counting as seven and change next year in dead cap space for Parise and Suter. You’re talking about three $5-million players you are now without on your roster, however you want to slice it up.
So I started looking into it and thinking who could go? Because, they need to invest in their back end. As it stands right now, they’ve got Jonas Brodin, they’ve got Jacob Middleton, Zach Bogosian, Jon Merrill and Brock Faber. And I think that’s not good enough. You’re not going to be a playoff team with that as your back end.
Faber has proven to be a top-pair guy at less than $1 million, although sometimes in year two you do see a little bit of a dip from players. But to me they got to spend the $6.5-7-million that they have on their back end. They got to go out, got to look at some free agents, you know Mats Zuccarello, he’s 36 years old, he makes four-and-a-quarter, he does have a full no-move clause right, so he controls his own destiny but when I look at the forward group, who could get you some value? And who could move significant money off the books? And Zuccarello kind of stood out to me for a guy maybe they look to move. I don’t know he’s still pretty productive at 36.
Frank Seravalli: No way. He just re-signed last September for this two-year deal that kicks in. They’re not moving him. You’re right, where do you find the space? I’ll tell you the guy – Filip Gustavsson.
For more on the Wild, the Stanley Cup Final and much more from around the entire NHL, watch the episode here: