Bill Guerin battles with Minnesota radio host over state of the Wild

The Minnesota Wild are continuing to carry several millions of dollars worth of "dead cap" money thanks to the buyouts of former players Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, who were both once thought of to be franchise saviors when they inked identical $93 million deals in the summer of 2012. 

And it's essentially tied one arm of Wild GM Bill Guerin behind his back, and he certainly hasn't been helped by the fact that the buyouts are costing the team $14.7 million while the salary cap has risen by only $2 million in the two years since the decision to part ways with Suter and Parise was announced. 

"I've always maintained that we have high expectations. The expectations every night are to win. The expectations every year are to win. I don't care what our situation is," Geurin said Tuesday in an interview with KFAN's Dan Barreiro.

"We are going to come out of cap hell in two years," Guerin continued. "First of all, we are going to have players that we are going to need to sign. So some of that money in that $15 million will go to current players. So it's not just going to be a big spending spree that we just go shopping down the aisles."

But Barreiro pushed back at bit, saying that fans are waiting for the big signing and that it sounds like Guerin actually is lowering the expectations. 

"Well now you're lowering the expectations again," he said. "They [fans in attendance] want the big signings. People have been waiting for that."

Guerin would respond to that by saying that he's not going to just go out and sign anyone for the sake of doing so when they're financially in a position to make it happen, because that can lead to once again being hamstrung by cap restraints. 

"We will get signings," Guerin clarified. "I think the most important thing, though, is that we do it in a smart, educated way that we've done all of our other moves. We have to make sure that if we go out and make a big signing, it's got to be with the right guy. Because if we go out and spend foolishly, and we bring in the wrong people, then we can handicap ourselves again. 

"When this is over, yes, we do want to make significant steps. We absolutely do. Being free of these cap hits will help us, for sure. I hope I'm being clear. We are going to have to use that money for a lot of different people. But, if you are looking at our team, we will have a significant amount of money to spend and we are going to have to fill out our roster. I think you guys know, I'm pretty aggressive by nature and we want to win. So, we are going to keep moving methodically through these next two years and get the most out of everybody involved. And then, yeah, it'll be a good time."

Finally, he referenced the COVID-19 pandemic in regards to why the salary cap hasn't increased by much over the years, stating that he still feels they've been able to ice a competitive team despite the unforeseen circumstances.

"It's unfortunate that we had this pandemic and it effected the revenues of the league preventing us from moving the salary cap up every year," Guerin said. "We forgot our crystal ball that day but we didn't see that one coming. I do think, even in this situation, we have been able to maneuver ourselves in a way that we keep a very competitive team on the ice. It's too bad we didn't get more relief than we have but I think next year we'll get a significant jump, as will everybody else in the league, but we'll take what we can get."

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