"We've made him a fair offer and he's deciding,"
Guerin told The Athletic
on Tuesday from Traverse City, Michigan, where he is attending the 2019 NHL Prospect Tournament. "I understand the position he's in. I've been in it a couple times myself. We want to get him in as quick as possible because if you miss training camp, the chances of you having a good year aren't very good. We want to get him in here and get him going.
"I'm just speaking from experience that you're better off being in camp than not. For Kevin's sake and our sake, I hope he's there, I really do."
The 23-year-old, acquired by the Wild in a trade with the Nashville Predators for center Mikael Granlund on Feb. 25, had 39 points (13 goals, 26 points) and a minus-23 rating in 83 games last season, including seven points (three goals, four assists) and a minus-12 rating in 19 games with Minnesota.
Selected by Nashville with the No. 11 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Fiala has 104 points (48 goals, 56 assists) in 223 games and six points (five goals, one assist) in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
"I don't know what his other options are. They're probably the obvious ones," said Guerin, who played 18 seasons in the NHL and was named GM of the Wild on Aug. 21, three weeks after Paul Fenton was fired. "I hope we can get this done, get him here, get going and put this all behind us."
Fiala is one of several unsigned RFAs, including forwards Mitchell Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks and Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames, and defensemen Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins and Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers.
