{"id":117139,"date":"2025-08-28T23:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/117139\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T23:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:28:08","slug":"which-bill-guerin-is-showing-up-to-the-kaprizov-negotiations-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/117139\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Bill Guerin Is Showing Up To the Kaprizov Negotiations? – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBill Guerin<\/a> had a unique reaction after signing Marco Rossi<\/a> to a three-year, $15 million bridge deal on Friday.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis might sound harsh,\u201d he said<\/a>, \u201cbut if you\u2019re betting on yourself with 15 million dollars in your pocket, that\u2019s a pretty good safety net.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn this league now, we\u2019re not really sending anybody to the poor house.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHopefully not, given that the players play in front of thousands of fans every night, and teams have multimillion-dollar television contracts. Still, while Rossi will be able to afford his mortgage and a European sports car, he\u2019s probably still in<\/a> Guerin\u2019s doghouse.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf nothing else, we learned that a 23-year-old center who had 100 points in the past two seasons likely<\/a> isn\u2019t part of Minnesota\u2019s long-term plans.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGuerin, a 6-foot-2, 220 lbs. power forward in his playing days, has always sought players in his likeness<\/a>. It\u2019s hard to argue with a player who won two Stanley Cups and played 18 years in the league. Still, a team made up solely of Bill Guerins won\u2019t win anything. They still need stars.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGuerin was never the face of the franchise at his various stops. He was a Zach Parise type: a highly-skilled glue guy known for scoring greasy goals and offering a veteran presence late in his career.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, he is the alpha and the omega in Minnesota. The Big Kahuna.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tArguably, the face of the franchise.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKirill Kaprizov<\/a> is Minnesota\u2019s best player. Still, he\u2019s a soft-spoken Russian, and Guerin is an irascible American. The Wild beat corps was ecstatic<\/a> when Kaprizov started speaking in English. Meanwhile, they\u2019d probably prefer that Guerin didn\u2019t browbeat them when Minnesota repeatedly fails<\/a> to get out of the first round, or has an uneventful<\/a>\u00a0trade deadline.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGuerin\u2019s lack of temperamental restraint is indicative of his status within the Wild organization. In 2023, Minnesota promoted Guerin<\/a> to president of hockey operations, even though his teams have never advanced past the first round.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was likely an effort to promote continuity through the league\u2019s oppressive cap penalties<\/a>, and retaining a general manager should promote stability at a trying time. In the abstract, that makes sense. However, it appears to have enabled Guerin to tap into his volatile side without much reservation. He acts like someone who knows he won\u2019t get fired.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was the incident when Guerin lashed out<\/a> at Cam Talbot<\/a> and his agent (Cam Talbot!). He allegedly<\/a> verbally abused a Wild employee and takes exception to media criticism. And while he tried putting out fires<\/a> during Rossi’s negotiations in July, rumors about his future had been blazing in a fairly public manner for at least a year beforehand.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps this is what some fans want. A swaggering, alpha leader who is going to turn the Wild into a winner through force of will. More likely, people don\u2019t care about Guerin\u2019s methods, so long as he builds a winning team.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the truth is that he hasn\u2019t produced a team that can win in the playoffs yet, and his efforts during cap hell haven\u2019t<\/a> offered reassurances that he built a contender. Despite having a good young core, they still need two things to happen to have a competitive roster.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t1) Kaprizov needs to re-sign and stay healthy throughout this extension.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t2)\u00a0Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>, Danila Yurov, and Zeev Buium must pan out.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNobody on the Wild drives winning more than Kaprizov. Still, expending him carries some injury risk<\/a>. Craig Leipold has expressed his desire to extend Kaprizov, and Minnesota can offer him more money than any other team under league rules. However, nothing is guaranteed until Kaprizov signs on the dotted line.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEven with Kaprizov under contract, the Wild need Wallstedt, Yurov, and Buium to become contributors. They need a second goalie, and Wallstedt should have more upside<\/a> than Filip Gustavsson<\/a>. Minnesota needs Yurov to become a top-six center, given they aren\u2019t committed to Rossi long term. And Buium must round out their defensive corps.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps the Wild\u2019s strange handling<\/a> of Rossi\u2019s early development isn\u2019t indicative of how they\u2019ll manage their top prospects. However, they\u2019ve already mishandled<\/a> Wallstedt\u2019s development, and he should be their franchise goalie.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMore pertinently, perhaps Guerin will calmly and steadily handle Kaprizov\u2019s contract extension. It’s happened before. Guerin hammered out Joel Eriksson Ek’s eight-year extension in a matter of three days<\/a>. Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello, and Marcus Foligno all got their most recent deals wrapped up in an unacrimonious bow in one training camp<\/a>. Ultimately, the negotiation should almost be a formality. Kaprizov hasn\u2019t indicated that he wants to leave, and Mr. Leipold has stated that he wants to keep him in Minnesota.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, there\u2019s probably going to be a unique dynamic in the negotiations. Guerin acts like the face of the franchise in Minnesota, or at least that he can do no wrong. So, what does that make Kaprizov? And will that affect how Guerin handles the most crucial contract extension in Wild history?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Guerin had a unique reaction after signing Marco Rossi to a three-year, $15 million bridge deal on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[55783,4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-117139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-bill-guerin","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}