The Minnesota Wild know exactly what they want. They just aren’t going to force it.
General manager Bill Guerin made that clear Tuesday during an appearance on Judd’s Hockey Show with Judd Zulgad and AJ Fredrickson, when the conversation turned to whether the roster is finished and whether a center could still be added later in the season.
Guerin’s answer matched the way Minnesota has operated so far: patient, but not passive.
“Yeah, that’s fair. That’s exactly, I mean, that’s exactly what happened last year.
I mean, last year I remember, I mean, hey, look, a year ago in July, nobody was more disappointed on July 1st than me. Like it was really slow.
It was really not what we expected. But you have to be patient.
You have to, you have to wait, and you can’t jump at something that doesn’t make sense just to do it.
And this year’s a little bit more, or kind of like that, and in a way, I don’t know what or who’s going to become available at what time or when. But there really wasn’t much to do.
We made the one trade, and I think that made us better. We had to say goodbye to a couple guys, but all in all, it wasn’t that active of an offseason just because of all the money that’s in the system now, and teams can sign their own players.
So, the one thing we don’t want to do is take steps backwards, and I think when there are bad signings or not bad signings, but signings that can kind of get you in trouble. That’s when that happens.
But no, listen, with this organization, the focus on that piece has been so big, and I understand it. It’s really listen, nobody wants it more than me, but that’s really a tough piece to come up with, and you just got to stay patient and diligent, and stay aggressive, but you got to be smart and try to be smart and patient.”
That’s the whole story in a nutshell. Minnesota wants a center, and it wants the right one.
Not the first one. Not the easiest one.
The right one.
The need has been obvious, and the source notes that center depth was an issue for the Wild when they lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs. The team has also been linked to Dylan Larkin, though Detroit does not want picks and prospects for him. Still, the idea remains simple: a player like Larkin would make Minnesota better.
And Guerin’s comments left the door open for that kind of move happening later, not necessarily now. The Wild’s approach is to stay ready, keep watching, and wait for the market to reveal the player they actually want. As Guerin put it, you can’t know who becomes available until you ask.
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