Guerin: Wild 'not ready to wave the white flag' on season
The Minnesota Wild are struggling this season, but general manager Bill Guerin wasn't about to declare his team dead in the water during his midseason availability on Monday.
"There's a lot of hockey left. Just keep playing," he said before Minnesota's 5-0 win over the New York Islanders. "This has been a bit of a crazy year. Bad start, coaching change, play great under (coach John Hynes) for the first 15 games, injuries to key players at the same time like I've never seen before. It seems that we've lost our way a bit, but hey look, there are some positives."
"We're definitely not ready to wave the white flag or anything like that," Guerin continued. "We just want to get healthy and move forward and see what we can do."
Monday's victory over New York ended Minnesota's four-game losing streak. The Wild had lost eight of their last nine contests, punctuated by a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
Minnesota now sits in seventh place in the Central Division, ahead of only the Chicago Blackhawks. Climbing back into the postseason picture is a relatively big ask: The Wild are six points out of a wild-card spot with four other teams ahead of them.
"If we're going to make the playoffs, we need to be a lot better than we've been," Guerin said. "Our core guys, our big players have to be better and produce at more key times. ... I still believe in this group, and I know people are going to say I'm crazy, but I do."
He added, "We don't have games to waste. We don't have time to waste. That's the reality of it."
The executive isn't blaming the Wild's current situation solely on injuries, but Minnesota is starting to get healthier, with Kirill Kaprizov, Filip Gustavsson, and Jonas Brodin all returning to the lineup recently.
As a result, Guerin is keeping an open mind when it comes to his plans for the trade deadline, which is over seven weeks away on March 8.
"The only way I'd do something now is if it was going to help us improve our team right now," he said. "Other than that, I like our team, I like our players. I think they have to be given a chance to perform again as a healthy group.
"And then we'll address the deadline when we get there. I don't think I can give you an answer today and just say, 'We're doing this' because a lot can change."
With around $14.7 million in dead cap space, per CapFriendly, the Wild don't have a ton of flexibility to shake up their roster.
Next up for Minnesota is a clash against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.