Wild 2022 Report Card: Bill Guerin

It’s time for the very last Minnesota Wild report card for this past season and that person is general manager Bill Guerin. He’s perhaps the person under the most scrutiny as he makes most of the big decisions. He decides who to draft, trade, sign, etc. with a whole team alongside him but he makes the final call.

The only position higher than Guerin is the owner Craig Leopold, but he trusts Guerin to make the tough choices. Guerin’s only been in the position for the past two seasons, but he was quick to make an impression. The biggest move to date has been the buyouts of both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, something that had to be done despite how difficult the future would be.

Guerin Knows Who to Sign

The most impressive signing for Guerin has to be Kirill Kaprizov. Guerin got him to sign an entry-level contract to play for the Wild during his rookie season and then worked diligently to get him to re-sign his newest contract of five years, $45 million. The only downside to the contract is that he’ll be an unrestricted free agent when it’s up, so hopefully the Wild either re-sign him before it expires or if it takes until free agency, they need him to want to stay here.

While Guerin got Kaprizov to sign long-term prior to that, he also secured Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year, $42 million contract. With that move, he ensured they would keep one of the best defensive-minded centers the Wild have ever had, for a very long time. He also re-signed Kevin Fiala to a one-year deal and Fiala went on to have his best season yet.

Throughout the season and even the offseason, Guerin re-signed Jon Merrill, Jordan Greenway, Alex Goligoski, and Marc-André Fleury to longer-term deals. Merrill and Greenway have proven to be great assets and will continue to be in the future. Fleury and Goligoski are strong players also but many are a little wary due to their age and recent inconsistency. However, Guerin knows what he’s doing and he wouldn’t re-sign them if he didn’t believe they would prove essential to the Wild.

Guerin Loses Some

While Guerin was able to secure some big names, he couldn’t make them all happy. It was unavoidable that as soon as they signed Kaprizov to his big contract, they would lose Fiala. Re-signing Fiala to a one-year deal the first time around was difficult but with trying to keep Fleury and some of the younger guys, Fiala was the odd man out this time around.

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