Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Michael Russo when asked what approach the Minnesota Wild could take heading into the March 7th trade deadline. They don’t have a lot of salary cap room to work with.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “How aggressive do you think Bill Guerin can get here, and how aggressive do you think he will get here with the team? Because you know the, we’ve talked about it on this show, if the team gives you a reason to go out and make additions, then a lot of GMs will do that. The Minnesota Wild have certainly given Bill guarantees to go out and be aggressive.”
Russo: “Yeah, and two years ago, if you remember the Wild, you know, even though they weren’t huge moves, he went out and made, you know, three or four moves at the trade deadline. Added guys like Marcus Johanson and (Gustav) Nyquist, you know, a couple others as well that escape me right now.
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So he’s willing to do it, if he believes that you can. I think remember, (John) Klingberg was another that actually turned out to be really a disaster for them. But, you know, you know, I just think that a lot of it will have to do with the cap space. Like, you know, as I mentioned, like, no, they lost Brock Faber last , they do not even have enough money right now to call up a player. So it’s just going to be hard, to accrue space.
Now, in terms of willing, his willingness to be aggressive, he’s definitely willing to trade picks and prospects right now. Like the Wild are at that stage, and he showed it with the David Jiricek trade. Even though Jiricek is a prospect, is that he’s willing to trade. I mean, he traded up first, a second, a third, and a fourth and a, and a young defenseman for Jiricek. Yho you know is, obviously he hasn’t played a game for the Wild yet. It’s an investment into the future. They have him in minors, and he’s, he’s trying, they’re trying to develop them down there. And this is, again, for the future, not now.
But to get guys at the deadline that could make impacts right now, this team is just, it’s going to be tough if they don’t accrue the cap space. But they are at that, that, that, you know, part of the process. And you know, Mike knows fully as the long-time manager in this league, there comes a point in every team this process where you decide, all right, now’s the time to go and be aggressive. Where you don’t, where you can now use those picks and prospects as currency.
And the Wild, they’re at that spot. If you look at their at their roster, you know, they’ve got a lot of prospects coming that they will not trade. They, you know, they, you know the Danila Yurov’s of to the world, and obviously (Jesper) Wallstedt, maybe Riley Heidt. But other than that, you know, if you look at their NHL roster, they’ve got Rossi, Faber and Boldy on the team, and then they have a lot of guys that are, have been signed for long term. They want to sign (Kirill) Kaprizov after this year for eight years.
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So if you look at their roster, and you map it out, just not a lot of room for prospects. Which tells me that, you know, there are going to come points here where he’s just going to be willing to trade those guys. We might have saw the beginning of that with Damon Hunt going to Columbus in the Jiricek deal. But I do think that at some point, if they can afford it, and it might not be this year because of their cap situation, that he’s willing to do that.”
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