Wild quiet at trade deadline, but its time is coming

There will come a time when Wild General Manager Bill Guerin will throw caution to the wind, push his chips to the middle of the table and declare his team "all in." He's confident of that much.
Now, Guerin said, is not that time.
The Wild was quiet ahead of the NHL's Trade Deadline on Monday, choosing not to mortgage a bright future by trading draft picks for rentals in a season where Minnesota sits in third place in the West Division, comfortably inside the playoff bubble.

When that time might be is a little more arbitrary, but if there is anyone that is familiar with trade deadline dynamics, both from a front office perspective, as well as that of a player, it's Guerin, who in his time as an executive with the Pittsburgh Penguins, learned from former Pens GM Jim Rutherford, a man never afraid to make a trade.
As a player, Guerin was traded twice at the deadline during his career. The first time, he was moved to San Jose, a trade that didn't work out. The second, he was moved to the Penguins, and a few months later, they lifted the Stanley Cup.
"I don't think I can say, a year from now, two years from now [will be that time]. It'll be a feeling," Guerin said. "I think it's really important to know your group as well, to feel out your group. If you can, if the group can absorb a trade deadline deal and make somebody feel welcome and have it go successfully, who you're getting, can they handle it ... those types of things. I really think when the time comes, there just has to be a lot of thought that goes into it."
With at least eight draft picks currently in his holster - and potentially a ninth - Guerin said he wants to head into what promises to be a busy and hectic summer with a full arsenal of draft selections.
"It's tough to not be involved in this stuff, but you know what, for the long-term plan and quite frankly for short-term, I think we're better off," Guerin said. "[Trading for rentals] just wasn't a part of my thinking. We're just not in a position right now to be using the assets we that have for rentals."
Minnesota is currently armed with a pair of first-round picks (its own and Pittsburgh's, as a result of the Jason Zucker trade), its own second and two more picks in the third round (its own and Pittsburgh's, as a result of the Ryan Donato trade to San Jose). Had it chosen to dive into the rental market, it likely would have cost the Wild at least one of those selections, if not more.
And with 16 games remaining in the regular season, as well as a potential playoff run, the cost just didn't seem worth it.
"Oh yeah. Absolutely not. We weren't doing that at all," Guerin said of dealing a premium pick for a rental. "That would have to be something really special for us to do that. That just wasn't available."
While the Wild did not make a trade ahead of the deadline, it is getting a pseudo newcomer back in the lineup on Wednesday afternoon when it hosts the Arizona Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center.
Forward Marcus Foligno is expected back in the lineup after missing the past month because of a lower-body injury sustained when he took a Jonas Brodin slapshot to his lower leg on March 12.
Foligno was in the middle of perhaps his best season in the NHL when the injury occurred, having scored seven goals and 16 points in just 23 games. He tallied a career high 25 points last season, but he accomplished that in 59 games.
Foligno is also a critical leader inside the Wild's dressing room and on the ice, so his return to the lineup after missing 15 games feels like a deadline acquisition for the stretch run.
"One-hundred percent it does. And you know what, it's great to have him back. It's like making a trade," Guerin said. "When you're without one of your top guys for a month, that's a long time. Four weeks, there's a lot of games tucked in there that we were without one of our leaders. To get him back is definitely a bonus. We're approaching being at full health. We're still missing [Nick Bjugstad], and he's recovering, but getting Marcus back is a big lift."
Guerin seemed more open to pure hockey trades, but those deals are difficult to consummate midseason, and especially this year, where there will be a flat salary cap in the summer as well as expansion concerns with the Seattle Kraken entering the league officially once this season is over.
The Wild also has a number of critical players set to be restricted free agents this summer, including Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman.
With all of that uncertainty and business to attend to a few months from now, the prudent move was to stand pat and trust the team that has come this far to do the heavy lifting the rest of the way.
"I think we have a good team. We have good forwards, our power play is coming alive right now, which is nice, our defensive core is as good as any in the league, and our goalies are playing fantastic," Guerin said. "I've said it, the League is so close and so tight, we feel we can beat anybody and we know anybody can beat us. It's just the way the League is set up. And it's good. If we just get into the playoffs, we can size up our opponent and go round by round."