Evason, Guerin recap the season, discuss their hopes for the future

ST. PAUL -- One day after Wild players had their final say on how the 2021-22 season came to a conclusion, head coach Dean Evason and general manager Bill Guerin met with the media to offer their thoughts on the year.
And for Guerin, specifically, it was a potential window into what the offseason could look like as Minnesota charts a difficult path forward following a historically good year.

"A disappointing way to end. I didn't feel like we had our best, and it was unfortunate," Guerin said. "We played a good team in St. Louis, they beat us, they played better than we did, and that's that. That's the way it went.
"That being said, I can look back on this season with a lot of positive thoughts in my head. From day one, you could tell this team was different. This team had something special about it. And we made tremendous steps in the direction that we want to be going in."
That's seems to be the true belief of Guerin as he heads into his second "normal" season as the team's GM.
His first year, he wasn't hired until August, and the season that started a month later would be shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guerin's second season was just 56 games long and had empty or half-full arenas all season.
The 2021-22 season was back to its normal 82 games in length, and while there were some hiccups along the way in terms of dealing with COVID and the postponement of games, it was a normal season by relative standards.
Guerin sees it as a jumping off point, not a high-water mark.
"I've been here three seasons now, this is my first season that management, coaches, and players alike, were able to do things exactly the way we wanted to do them," Guerin said. "And we took such a big step in the right direction in my mind, that that gives me a lot of hope and a lot of encouragement for what's to come.
"We've made some moves over the last couple of years to kind of mold things the way that we wanted to do things. And I think for us, we wanted to create something that was different and special. Without any obstacles in the way, and with our players and guys that we've picked up, and I think the guys having this group of players that they do in the room, being able to do what they wanted to do was special."

Between the retirement of Mikko Koivu two years ago, and the buyouts of both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter last offseason, the Wild has completely re-imagined its leadership core over the past 20 months or so.
Captain Jared Spurgeon, in his second season wearing the 'C,' welcomed new alternate captains Marcus Foligno and Matt Dumba to the fold before the year, and the result was a dressing room that was -- to a man -- one of the tightest many have ever been a part of.
"This is a locker room that was as close as close gets, and a group of players that played for each other as much as I've ever seen," Guerin said. "A lot of what people in our organization think and tried, implemented, it worked."
Guerin made clear Tuesday that he'd love to bring the entire team back next season, including unrestricted free agents Marc-Andre Fleury and Nicolas Deslauriers as well as restricted free agents like Kevin Fiala and Jake Middleton.
But it's not always that easy, especially with Parise and Suter's empty cap hits accelerating this season and for each of the next two that follow after.
According to CapFriendly, the Wild currently has just over $8 million in free cap space, a number that would likely be exceeded or at least approached on a new deal for Fiala alone, nevermind the other business Guerin must accomplish this offseason.
"There's uncertainty," Guerin said regarding Fiala's future with the club, using the same word Fiala uttered with the media during his availability on Monday. "I mean, we'd love to have Kevin back. I don't know if it's going to be possible. But we have to dig into it a little bit and to see what we could possibly do. But there is uncertainty. That's a good word for it.
"Look, we can do anything. But at what cost?"
Fleury is another player Guerin said he would like to work hard at retaining, and not at the expense of incumbent starter Cam Talbot, who has one year remaining on his contract.
In a perfect world, and if the financials can work, he'd like both veterans on the club as a tandem next season.
"We like both goalies, we like both people," Guerin said. "We want them both back. And, we think we can be successful with both of them."
Middleton flourished during his six-week run with Minnesota after he was acquired on Trade Deadline Day from the San Jose Sharks.
After playing in just 14 games over three seasons since making his NHL debut in 2018-19, Middleton said Monday he expected to be returned to the AHL after training camp.
Instead, he made the Sharks and often played with either Brent Burns or Erik Karlsson, providing a solid, physical, defensive-defenseman next to the more offensively-gifted veterans.
He skated in 45 games with the Sharks, scoring three goals and chipping in nine points while playing to a plus-3 on a backend filled with guys who have been annual minuses in recent seasons.
Middleton was traded to Minnesota and played in 21 games with the Wild after the deadline, scoring once and racking up a plus-7. He was a plus-6 in the six games against the Blues in the postseason, his first-ever trip to the postseason.
But he also found a home quickly inside the tight-knit dressing room.
He and Spurgeon were able to form instant yin-and-yang chemistry on the back end, and retaining the pending RFA would do wonders in solidifying the Wild's blueline in future seasons.
"We want him back," Guerin said. "He's a beauty, he's a guy that we really like and he was a really popular guy in a short amount of time. Maybe his next contract he can afford more than five t-shirts. But he probably won't buy more."

Evason opines on postseason, special teams, goaltending

While Guerin was a popular target for questions on Tuesday, Evason was asked for his post-mortem on the Wild's shaky special teams, which reared its head in the playoff series against the Blues.
"We talked about our special teams and we've made a lot of it. It wasn't good this year. We didn't execute well," Evason said. "We're going to switch some stuff up. No question."
But Evason was quick to note that the team's up-and-down penalty kill, which finished the season ranked among the NHL's bottom third, is the same exact system the Washington Capitals used when he was an assistant coach there and ranked No. 1 in the league.
"We just didn't execute this year. We really didn't," Evason said. "And we talked about it a lot, our clears were very suspect. When we had pucks on our tape, they have to get down the ice. There's a lot of areas. We're going to switch some stuff up. No question. Systematically, we have to. We can't just, 'Oh well, it's just the players not clearing the puck.' No, it's us too. We clearly have to do some stuff to switch it up."
Evason said that'll be the case on the power play too, which far too often, was unable to capitalize in key situations, especially in the postseason.
There were stretches where the power play carried the team offensively, but those were too few and far between for Evason's liking.
Winning key faceoffs is one area where that could really help, allowing the Wild to establish possession in the offensive zone as opposed to immediately retrieving pucks from behind its own net, killing precious time with the man advantage.
"We have to make an emphasis on it from day one," Evason said. "Our faceoff guys have got better. We looked at them. Eriksson Ek got better every single year that he's been here. But he needs to get better. We all need to get better in the faceoff, and that's not just the [centers]. That's everybody. We will make more of an emphasis."
Evason also clarified his stance on his comments during the playoffs that choosing Fleury as his starting goaltender was an "easy" decision, a quote that caused a stir with some on social media.
He said the decision, in fact, wasn't an easy one because one goalie was playing well and one wasn't, rather than he felt he was in a situation where he was equally confident in both Fleury and Talbot.
"When I said it was an easy decision, it was an easy decision because either way, we were very confident, extremely confident, whichever way that we were going to go, that both goaltenders obviously played so well," Evason said. "We had a very, very difficult decision, but we felt it was easy, because it was going to be a good one."
Ultimately, the decision to choose Fleury over Talbot for Game 1, and in fact five of the six games, came down to one thing.
"All things equal, Marc-Andre Fleury had three Stanley Cups. That tipped the scale. That was the decision," Evason said. "And then we had decisions, like, 'Hey, do we make a switch here?' No different than any other player, defenseman, forward. Do we make a change? Do we tweak it? Do we need a jump-start? We talk about it all the time."
Photo by Andee Bender