Minnesota Wild expected to hire Bill Guerin as general manager

For the second time in three years, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be losing an assistant general manager. Bill Guerin is reportedly going to be named the next Minnesota Wild general manager. 

The Minnesota Wild‘s search for their next general manager is reportedly over. After interviewing several candidates, it appears Bill Guerin will be hired as their next GM. This is according to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

According to Russo, Guerin is being flown out to Minnesota on Wednesday to finalize the terms of the deal. He could become officially announced as the general manager as soon as Thursday or perhaps Friday.

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UPDATE: The team has announced Guerin has been hired.

This will be Guerin’s first stint as an NHL general manager, though he has served as an assistant general manager for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the past five years. Recently, Guerin also served as the general manager for the Pens’ AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

Guerin was reportedly a strong candidate last summer when the Wild were looking to replace Chuck Fletcher as their general manager. However, they decided to go with Paul Fenton, formerly of the Nashville Predators. Fenton’s tenure with the Wild was short, as he was fired in late July after a shade over 14 months on the job.

Much like Fenton, Guerin is a first-time NHL general manager. However, he is very highly respected around the league and has helped the Penguins have a lot of success. Guerin has helped the Penguins develop players such as Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel in the AHL. Teddy Blueger is another of his recent success stories.

The Wild are taking a risk with Guerin, as he’s never been an NHL general manager before. However, he’s a proven winner. That unique trait has followed him to his post-NHL career. Guerin is terrific at helping players develop. He should be able to help fix the Wild’s long-time issue of not being able to develop players consistently.

Guerin has no experience managing the salary cap, but that’s a minor flaw. The Wild could always hire someone to worry about that stuff. Guerin’s charisma is impressive. And it’s something Fenton lacked. Guerin should be able to give the Wild an organizational direction, which they have lost over the past 14 months.

He beat out several candidates, most notably Ron Hextall, formerly of the Philadelphia Flyers. Considering how experienced Hextall is, Guerin must have really won over the Wild’s front office. Given his charisma and knowledge, this shouldn’t be surprising.

This is the second time in the past three seasons the Penguins have lost an assistant general manager because they became a general manager. Jason Botterill left the Penguins after the 2016-17 season to become the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres.