For Bill Guerin, who's been GM of the Minnesota Wild since 2019, the beginning of this month must have felt like finally taking off an extremely tight pair of pants after a very long day. As a consequence of the team buying out both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, they were stifled by three years of salary-cap weight totaling over $10 million annually. That burden severely limited the Wild's ability to build around superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov, particularly in a 2023–24 campaign where his 46 goals went to waste without even a playoff appearance. Now, however, the impact of the Parise and Suter contracts is negligible on Minnesota's finances, so Guerin is free to do deals without those 30x30 skinny jeans crushing his waist. The results? Well, actually, not that much so far.
The one thing you need to know, if you want to know anything about the Minnesota Wild, is that they are the most "slightly above average" franchise in the history of the NHL. Dating back to 2013, they have missed the postseason only twice. But in that time, they have won exactly two playoff series, and none since 2015. Their regular seasons are usually pretty solid, but time and again they get walloped in a best-of-seven. By the time trophies are being polished, nobody anywhere is thinking about the Wild.
This season was more of the same. Even though Kaprizov missed half the year with an injury, his slack was picked up by great goaltending from Filip Gustavsson and skaters both pre- and post-prime who made important contributions. At the kids' table, there were Brock Faber, Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy. Dozing off in the living room, they had Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon, and two guys named Marcus. All told, it was a squad only good enough for seventh in the West. But again, with those big buyouts starting to dissolve, Guerin should have been stretching his legs, preparing for a big leap.
They got Nico Sturm. Nico Sturm, and Vladimir Tarasenko. That's it, with $10 million in cap space left to spare as they try to work out a raise for Rossi, a restricted free agent. Tarasenko, acquired from the Red Wings for "future considerations," is now on his sixth team in four years. The 33-year-old is coming off his least productive full season yet, but has found another suitor wondering if there could be a spark left. Sturm, signed for two years and $4 million, is a depth center who won a Cup as a rental in Florida, but only tallied three shots on goal across eight playoff games where he averaged less than nine minutes of ice time.
Neither of these guys will turn the Wild into true threats, at least on their own. What Minnesota is doing instead is banking on a year where Faber and Boldy and Rossi (if he's not traded) take the next step forward, the even-younger prospects like Zeev Buium start to emerge, and Kaprizov, among others, stays healthy. Maybe that happens, or maybe it doesn't, but a lot is riding on keeping Kaprizov happy. Drafted by the team a whole 10 years ago, the 28-year-old from Novokuznetsk is one of the headlining potential free agents of the 2026 class. Given that it would be nearly impossible for Minnesota to snatch a talent of that caliber from another team, it is imperative that they keep this dynamo in St. Paul. You just don't want to let go of a guy who can do this:
Or this:
Or this:
On second thought, we should have done Kirills Week.
