Earlier today, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Jared Spurgeon would be missing the rest of the season due to back and hip surgery, and Joe Smith of The Athletic speculates that the organization may use their newfound cap space to improve their situation. Only two days ago, General Manager Bill Guerin publicly stated that he is unwilling to give up on the 2023-24 season, and fully expects this team to compete for a playoff spot over the next couple of months.
If Minnesota is going to operate as a buyer come trade deadline time, there are a few options at defense they could look to acquire. Assuming the team looks for a right-handed defenseman to replace the lost minutes left by Spurgeon, they could become a dark horse contender for a defenseman such as Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames, or even look to acquire Tyson Barrie from their division rivals, the Nashville Predators.
In the next few weeks leading up to the trade deadline, the status of the Wild’s playoff chances should come into much clearer view for Guerin, which should help him steer the ship in a more concrete direction. Whatever the case may be, if Minnesota decides to make a major move to replace Spurgeon for the rest of the season, they will have approximately $5.1MM in cap flexibility to do so.
Other snapshots:
- In tonight’s game for the Washington Capitals, they saw the return of their captain, Alex Ovechkin, who had missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. Unfortunately, the team will be without a few players, as Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network reported that defenseman Joel Edmundson would not play in tonight’s game with an upper-body injury, and forward Beck Malenstyn is out due to personal reasons.
- Moving on to another team in the Metropolitan Division, even though Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported earlier that newly-acquired defenseman Jamie Drysdale was not seen at practice today, he was able to draw into the lineup for the Philadelphia Flyers this evening. Suiting up for the team in two games, Drysdale came down with an illness shortly after arriving in Philadelphia and subsequently missed the next two contests for the team. Drawing back in the lineup against the Dallas Stars, Drysdale has already skated in over 14 minutes of the game and has put two shots on the net.
Guerin is a politician that is absolutely full of it! He’s another Chuck Fletcher and not fooling anyone!
Guerin is a former NHLer. By no means is he a politician. He is not fighting for a new arena from the state and I doubt he will ever be put in that spot. He is the GM of the Wild and there to recruit players and keep them at a reasonable cap hit due to what the team has bought out in recent years with his reputation. Once they are out of those contracts the president and owner will likely move on and bring in an actual GM to move the team forward.
Kind of surprised you feel this way… Bill is old school and all but not old boys. Kind of your cup of tea.
When you look into the TV camera and claim you are competing for the Stanley Cup without laughing, You are a politician that is clearly full of it. I will say though, Guerin provides me with alot of laughs!
Guerin made mean eyes at me during a media scrum because I was wearing a Boone Jenner jersey.
Ah! So thats it! Now you make sense! Nah, on second thought you still dont make sense!
The John Hynes magic is at work in Minny.