Hughes\u2019 good friend<\/a>) and St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas could also be available. Then there\u2019s the New Jersey Devils, with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, although Tom Fitzgerald has no desire to break up his core.<\/p>\nWith free agency this summer thin league-wide, the best and perhaps only way for teams such as the Wild to make a significant impact on their rosters will be through the trade market. And with most of the aforementioned top-level stars holding some level of trade protection, whether it\u2019s a full no-move like Matthews and Tkachuk (Hughes\u2019 good friend) or a no-trade like Thomas, it\u2019s kind of like free agency, where a player would have to pick the Wild as his destination.<\/p>\n
Quinn Hughes didn\u2019t have trade protection when the Canucks were moving him in December, but president Jim Rutherford worked with Hughes\u2019 camp on his destination. That Hughes was open to coming to Minnesota says a lot about the franchise\u2019s appeal as a destination \u2014 now and going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud,\u201d Guerin said after the Hughes trade. \u201cLook, I love Minnesota. Our players love Minnesota. This is a great place to play. But no matter what, whether you have good weather, good taxes, good, I don\u2019t know, whatever, the hockey has to be good. Hockey has to be. You can live in the sun. You can live in these great places, or make a little more money, but if the hockey is not good, you won\u2019t be happy. So that\u2019s what really matters. If the hockey is good, if your job is good, you will be happy. And I think he\u2019ll be really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hockey, at least before the past three home games, has been very good in Minnesota now since Hughes\u2019 arrival. Many consider the Wild a Stanley Cup contender for the first time in, maybe, forever. They\u2019re in the top five in the league in points and boast three legitimate superstars in Hughes, Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov, plus Brock Faber, Joel Eriksson Ek and two strong goaltenders in Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt.<\/p>\n
As Guerin put it, \u201cGreat players want to play with other great players.\u201d Future Hall of Famer Steven Stamkos reportedly had the Wild among the three teams he would have been open to getting moved to at the deadline (along with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars).<\/p>\n
Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian, an 18-year NHL veteran and 2020 Stanley Cup champion, has seen the perception of the franchise change throughout his career. Bogosian signed a two-year extension with Minnesota in March 2024 after being acquired from the Lightning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at our lineup right now, it kind of checks every single box,\u201d Bogosian said. \u201cWe can play skilled, we can play physical, we can play fast, we can defend well. If you\u2019re a guy around the league and you\u2019re playing against us or peeking in once and a while, I think you see the trajectory of the (Fabers), the (Boldys), (Kaprizov) and now Hughes. I think that probably excites a lot of players that want to play on a good team and be part of something special. I definitely think that it\u2019s changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Guerin remained patient at the trade deadline, he now has multiple assets he can use for big-game hunting on the market in the summer, including Wallstedt, Danila Yurov, Charlie Stramel, Adam Benak and the team\u2019s 2027 first-round pick.<\/p>\n
Kaprizov and Gustavsson have no-move clauses, and Eriksson Ek, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton have modified no-trade clauses. Everybody else, including Jonas Brodin, is without protection.<\/p>\n
When Hughes was acquired, he mentioned he had already gotten to know and respect Guerin from their interactions at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February 2025. Hughes appreciated how Guerin handled his injury situation at the event and said he wouldn\u2019t forget Guerin had the guts to give up a huge package (Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-rounder) in a trade for him.<\/p>\n
You can imagine how many other relationships Guerin has built through USA Hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me, I don\u2019t sit on the sidelines,\u201d Guerin said recently. \u201cI\u2019m pretty involved with the group, in there shooting the breeze with them and making fun of their clothes, their sticks, (Jack) Eichel\u2019s tape job. It\u2019s terrible. But he\u2019s a hell of a player. It works for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerin was anxious to make a big move at this deadline but stayed patient, knowing it wasn\u2019t sensible to give up what he would have had to for somebody like Vincent Trocheck if it took him out of the potential big names this summer.<\/p>\n
Watching the Wild\u2019s past three games, with their continued lack of a top center, could further show him what the team needs.<\/p>\n
Still, Guerin sees the window open and wants to pounce. People around the league expect him to.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got Billy Guerin, his pedigree,\u201d Flyers coach and Guerin\u2019s buddy Rick Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time. This team is, it\u2019s a good hockey team. And just getting Quinn, you know, the best defenseman and one of the best players in the league, is just a game changer for this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wild trip for Wild fan<\/p>\n
August Jewell\u2019s \u201cbucket-list\u201d trip to his first Wild game turned into a version of \u201cPlanes, Trains and Automobiles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewell, 25, is a fan who lives in Petersburg, Alaska, a town of about 3,000. He watches every game. After he recently completed a five-year apprenticeship to become an IBEW journeyman power lineman, his father, Bob, wanted to take him and his brother, Cooper, 28, to a Wild game. But when their flights from Seattle on Friday were canceled, they decided to fly to Chicago and then drive.<\/p>\n
But they arrived at 1 a.m. and weren\u2019t able to rent a car that late, so they slept on chairs in the lounge at O\u2019Hare airport until the rental agencies opened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one thing after another,\u201d August said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9664-scaled-e1773680093387.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n August, Cooper and Bob Jewell made the trek to Minnesota to see the Wild over the weekend. (Joe Smith \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n
They made the six-hour drive, beating Saturday night\u2019s snowstorm and getting to Grand Casino Arena for the Wild\u2019s game against the Rangers. August, worried that Sunday\u2019s game would get canceled due to the storm, wore four of his Wild jerseys that night (Hughes\u2019 U.S. jersey, Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Boldy). August wore his Boldy jersey on Sunday and Cooper wore his Mikko Koivu jersey.<\/p>\n
Bob Jewell, an IBEW journeyman telecommunications technician, said all the adventures and inconveniences were worth it for the memories with his sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely a bucket list,\u201d Bob said. \u201cHe\u2019s the biggest fan in the family, so we wanted to get him here, and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything worked out in the end \u2014 well, except for the Wild laying two eggs in a row at home.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s continued \u2018last games\u2019 in Minnesota<\/p>\n
After 27 years as an NHL referee, Chris Lee is retiring before the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Lakeville, Minn., resident was supposed to work his 121st and final game at Grand Casino Arena on Thursday night when the Wild hosted the Flyers. However, there are so many injuries to officials right now, Lee already has a game added this upcoming Thursday against Chicago.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s supposed to be his 124th and final game.<\/p>\n
How\u2019d it get to 124 when Thursday was supposed to be his 121st and final? The snowstorm that just blitzed the Twin Cities caused incoming travel problems for officials, so Lee was called upon to do Saturday\u2019s and Sunday\u2019s games, as well \u2014 an unusual three home Wild games in a row.<\/p>\n
In fact, because of an injury to linesman Ben O\u2019Quinn in Saturday\u2019s game and the inability to get another linesman into Minnesota due to flight cancellations, one of Saturday\u2019s refs, Brandon Schrader, was called upon to be a linesman in Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Either way, as of this very moment, Lee\u2019s final game in his \u201chome rink\u201d is supposed to be Thursday night. But the way things have been going, maybe we will see the orange armbanded No. 28 on the ice there again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The day before the Olympic tournament began in Milan, Minnesota Wild and U.S. general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-527438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527438","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=527438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}