Extreme Makeover

Can Bill Guerin’s remodeled roster be the start of a Cup-winning culture?

By: Michael Russo

In the most abnormal of offseasons because of the pandemic delaying the end to the 2019-20 season and start to the 2020-21 season, Bill Guerin was one busy general manager this fall.

Hard to blame the former NHL star and soon-to-be second-year Wild GM because he really never got to tinker during his first year at the helm. Sure, he ultimately swung the Jason Zucker trade last February, but remember, he was hired in the second half ofAugust 2019—late in that offseason because of the abrupt firing of Paul Fenton.

So, Guerin really never got a first crack at tweaking, or in this autumn’s case, overhauling the roster. The Wild have made the playoffs seven times in the past eight years, but they haven’t advanced into the second round since 2015 and have not proven to be a true Western Conference contender.

Guerin’s objective is solely to deliver the State of Hockey a Stanley Cup-winning team.

So, Guerin felt it was time to shake things up by getting a new face in goal (Cam Talbot), changing the face of the franchise by not bringing back longtime captain Mikko Koivu and working to make the team younger, faster and, frankly, more flexible by compiling a roster of numerous players in the last year of their contracts.

“Why have we been falling short?” Guerin wondered aloud on The Athletic’s Straight From the Source podcast in August. “There’s something rooted here that’s not working. ... It’s something in the culture, and we need to change it.”

Guerin, who added, “We can’t live in the past,” hopes to build through the draft by adding to a couple quality draft classes in a row (Matt Boldy, Adam Beckman, Alex Khovanov, etc.) with his own picks like this past October when the Wild added Marco Rossi, Marat Khusnutdinov, Ryan O’Rourke, Daemon Hunt and Pavel Novak to the crop of prospects.

Beyond letting Koivu leave for the Columbus Blue Jackets as a free agent, Guerin traded Eric Staal, Devan Dubnyk, Luke Kunin and Ryan Donato from a team that in the previous year also traded longtime key fixtures Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle.

So, is this roster makeover a true “rebuild?” Do the Wild still expect to be a contender next season?

Or, both?

Yes, yes and yes again, Guerin says.

“Every time we step on the ice, I expect us to win. And I expect us to compete for a championship,” Guerin said. “We’re trying to do a little bit of both. A little bit for now and a little bit for the future. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do.

“There have been some really good hockey players that have been here for awhile, guys that I have a ton of respect for and I like. But if we want to move forward, then, in my opinion, we needed to change some of those guys. I think we brought in some guys that will help us do that.

”There’s still a lot to look forward to this season, from the long-anticipated debut of Kirill Kaprizov to seeing if Rossi can earn a roster spot to seeing if Kevin Fiala can develop into the superstar he looked like he was becoming last season.

Here’s a closer look at the roster:

Wild’s Revamped Roster

ADDITIONS: LW Kirill Kaprizov, C Marcus Johansson, C Nick Bonino, RW Nick Bjugstad, G Cam Talbot, C Marco Rossi.

SUBTRACTIONS: C Mikko Koivu, C EricStaal, G Devan Dubnyk, RW Luke Kunin , LW Ryan Donato, C Alex Galchenyuk.

Players to Watch

KAPRIZOV: Five years after being drafted and about three since he started to emerge as a star in Russia, Kaprizov finally signed his entry-level contract with the Wild. The bubbly star twice led the KHL in goal scoring, led one World Junior tournament in goal scoring and scored the “Golden Goal” in overtime in the 2018 Winter Olympics to win a gold medal. How will he adjust to the NHL after not playing hockey competitively since March? Guerin isn’t worried, but he has also tried to lessen expectations and alleviate pressure from a player who many fans hope will be an instant star and team savior.

FIALA: The Wild leading scorer in the playoffs picked up right where he left off at the NHL pause in early March. Remember, Fiala started to look like a true game-breaker down the stretch with 14 goals and 26 points in his final 18 games, including the final goal of the regular season in overtime at Anaheim.The speedster can score in many different ways, from dangling with his silky smooth hands and quick feet to just let-ting a slap shot rip from long distance.

JOHANSSON: A smart, fast, skilled player, it’ll be interesting to watch him in Minnesota. He’ll be motivated during a contract year, but the Wild, as of now, seem to be intent on playing him as their No. 1 center. Throughout Johansson’s career with Washington, New Jersey and Buffalo, those organizations pretty much concluded that he was a much better winger than center. Yet, last season in Buffalo, he was force-fed as the Sabres’ No. 2 center and floundered. The Wild may have no choice but to also put him at center unless Rossi, the Wild’s 2020 first-round pick andOttawa 67s star, shows he’s ready to step into such a big role.

TALBOT: After a tough year in 2019-20 personally and professionally for Dubnyk, Alex Stalock saved the day with a career-high 20 wins last season. But Guerin really bought into the analytics saying that the Wild, who are solid defensively, would have been a much better team had Dubnyk stopped the shots he was supposed to.

Guerin’s banking on the fact that if theWild can be the same team defensively, Talbot will step in on a three-year deal and be the backbone that will lead to a lot more victories. Talbot had a tough run two years ago in Edmonton and Philadelphia, but looked a lot more like himself during a bounce-back campaign last season with Calgary. In 2016-17 for the Edmonton Oilers, Talbot, undrafted and a former product of the University of Alabama-Huntsville, led the NHL with 73 starts, 42 wins and had a 2.39 goals-against average and .919 save percentage. He finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting.

Looking for a big step

Defenseman Matt Dumba, right wing Mats Zuccarello, left wing Jordan Greenway, center Joel Eriksson Ek and center/right wing Nick Bjugstad. Dumba and Zuccarello had real tough years in 2019-20, Dumba coming off a torn pectoral muscle the season before (he was on pace for 30 goals before getting hurt) and Zuccarello expected to do so much more than he did during a sub-par 37-point campaign. The longtime New York Ranger is the highest-scoring Norwegian in NHL history but couldn’t find a comfortable role in his transition to the West.

Conversely, Guerin has made it quite clear that he expects big improvement from Greenway and he’s hoping for Eriksson Ek, one of the top defensive centers in the conference, to start chipping in more offensively. As for Bjugstad, the former Minnesota Mr. Hockey and Blaine star, he’s coming off an injury-plagued year and aims for a fabulous homecoming to earn a future contract.

Russo’s predicted leading goal scorer

Parise turned 36 in July and is coming off another year in which he led the Wild in goals. He’s the all-time leading goal scorer (386) among Minnesota-born players and is 10 power-play goals from passing Phil Housley’s record of 129. Parise scored 12 last season to finish tied for sixth in the NHL. Yes, he’s up there in age and yes, Fiala looks like he’s about to emerge, but Parise is Parise and is the model, gritty goal scorer. Still betting he’s there at the to pat the end of the season.

Russo’s predicted leading scorer

Ugh, I’m looking at last year’s Minnesota Hockey Journal Wild preview, and let’s just say I swung and missed on Zuccarello. Forget I wrote that he was “the type of playmaker that could replace the loss of Granlund.” Hey, it made sense because Zuccarello averaged almost 0.7 points per game during his Rangers tenure, and maybe he can show us the real Zuccarello this season. But if Fiala’s healthy, he should be a shoo-in to lead the Wild in points.

Ready to break out

Don’t want to go with a rookie because it’s unfair, especially when Guerin’s trying to down-play expectations, but Kaprizov’s 23 years old, not a typical 18- or 19-year-old rookie, like potentially Rossi. So here’s betting that Kaprizov steps in, quickly adjusts to the North American style and winds up in the Rookie of the Year conversation by season’s end.

What must happen for the Wild to make the playoffs

The NHL has placed the Wild in the temporarily realigned “West Division” with Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Jose and Vegas.

Well, if the top three teams from each division can make the playoffs, plus two wild-card teams, the Wild absolutely have a shot. Despite the changes, the Wild, to me, are still better than Anaheim, Arizona, L.A. and San Jose. So, as usual, the Wild should find themselves on the verge of making the playoffs behind the class of this new division—Colorado, Vegas and Dallas. But, the Wild need to overcome a pretty blah group of centermen by getting great goal-tending, quality play from their top-four D, scoring from their wingers and bounce-backs from some of the disappointing seasons a year ago.

Michael Russo writes forTheAthletic. He’s entering his 16th season covering the Wild and 26th covering the National Hockey League. He co-hosts the Worst Seats in the House podcast on talknorth.com and StraightFrom The Source podcast on TheAthletic. Both podcasts can be heard wherever you get your podcasts. Russo can be heard weekly on KFAN (100.3-FM) and seen throughout the hockey season on Fox Sports North and the NHL Network. Follow Russo on Twitter and Instagram at @RussoHockey.To subscribe to The Athletic at a discount, go to theathletic.com/straightfromthesource