Dan Wallace: Tough Road Trip Ends With 3rd Straight L

No surprise. Why Guerin thinks this roster can compete for a Stanley Cup is beyond me.

This team doesn’t have the talent to do anything but hope to eke into a playoff spot followed by a 1st round exit. Ownership and Guerin seem to be good with that.

The lack of talent has too many players slotted higher than they belong. Kaprizov, Zuccarello, JEE and Boldy are the only top six forwards. Gaudreau, Steel, Duhaime, Shaw, Dewar and Greenway are 4th liners who can’t provide secondary scoring. Reaves should be in the AHL. Hartman had an outlier year last year but has been a career mid to bottom six who can move up and down the lineup. Middleton isn’t a 1st pair D man, Dumba should be playing 3rd pair and MTL didn’t want Merrill back after going to the Cup finals. It just looks like they’ll blow the team up about year 4-5 of Kirill’s contract.

This team doesn’t have the talent to do anything but hope to eke into a playoff spot followed by a 1st round exit. Ownership and Guerin seem to be good with that.

The lack of talent has too many players slotted higher than they belong. Kaprizov, Zuccarello, JEE and Boldy are the only top six forwards. Gaudreau, Steel, Duhaime, Shaw, Dewar and Greenway are 4th liners who can’t provide secondary scoring. Reaves should be in the AHL. Hartman had an outlier year last year but has been a career mid to bottom six who can move up and down the lineup. Middleton isn’t a 1st pair D man, Dumba should be playing 3rd pair and MTL didn’t want Merrill back after going to the Cup finals. It just looks like they’ll blow the team up about year 4-5 of Kirill’s contract.
- Minnyhock

Damn lol

I don't think Guerin thinks this roster can compete for a Cup. I think he KNOWS it can't. But take a look at the bigger picture. Let's say Guerin did not buy out Parise and Suter. Their contracts would have been costing the Wild $2.4 mil more than what the buy is costing them this year. But they had to go as the locker room and roster had done nothing over the last decade. When those 2 contracts were made, they were made with the idea that in THE MIDDLE of the contracts, those 2 players would be leading the way to the Cup. That did not happen. So Guerin had to make changes. So he made corrections and created a different problem, which he is dealing with now. And realistically, next year is the only year that is going to have the Wild in a bind cap-wise. In 2 years (the final for the $14.8 cap hit), the Wild will have close to $30 mil in cap space, as it sits now...and still have KK under contract for 2 years at the same time.

Now, is Walker a top 6 player, I don't know, he might be. Is Rossi? I do think he will be. Is Adam Beckman? I doubt it, but I can see him taking on the "up and down" the lineup role of Hartman. But Guerin has to keep the roster going as it is now, without blowing it up, just to keep a player like KK interested in the team. In 4 more years (including this one), Kaprizov is going to be able to write his own ticket. So you can't just blow up the roster, or Kaprizov will become disinterested and want out now. Yeah, you could get a haul for him, but then it just becomes the rinse and repeat problem that has plagued teams like Arizona and Buffalo for years.

As for the list of 4th liners there, I agree. But I think guys like Greenway and Steel might be on the way out the door anyways. But you need those other guys to play their role as well. I never understand why fans think a roster should littlered with All-Stars throughout the entire roster. Guerin got a club that had never had much in the minors, and aging roster with guys that were just collecting a paycheck and not a lot of cap space to play with. And Guerin now has to find hidden gems (like Gus this season) to fit in and continue to make the roster grow better.

Guerin knows he can compete but not contend with this cap situation. I think management is giving Guerin the time he needs. Hopefully, he has a patient methodical plan. When cap space opens up, he’ll have to make the right moves or Kaprizov will likely make it clear that he won’t re up. By then, Zuccarello will have to be replaced. My concern is that if he can’t make the team better, the Wild will be stuck in mediocrity just good enough to compete stuck in the purgatory of drafting 12-20 year after year.