During the summer of 2026, Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin found himself solo in a hotel room with an evening to himself, which is exceedingly rare in his line of work. He took the time to stay in and do something he never had before truly experienced.

In February, Guerin was in the press box in Italy and watched first-hand as the American men’s Olympic team he had hand-picked beat Sweden in overtime to open the medal round, then beat Canada in overtime to claim the nation’s first gold medal since 1980.

But Guerin had never watched the television broadcast of the games. And truth be told, he’d never really gotten to enjoy them.

“It was so stressful. Everybody says ‘it must have been so much fun.’ No, it was horrible watching those games. It was really stressful,” he recalls of his time in Milan. “So I got to watch and enjoy these games, and it was funny because my stress level ramped right up. It was like my first time watching the game, because I’d forgotten so many little details of what had happened in both of those games. But it was so cool to just listen to the commentary and see the stuff after the game and be able to enjoy the crowds on TV. That was really cool. I’m glad I did that.”

In an exclusive conversation with the Pioneer Press, Guerin acknowledged that last season was among the best in his front office career, and as the 2026-27 season begins, none of what has happened in the past matters.

Well-earned accolades

Entering his eighth season as the person in charge of assembling the Wild roster, Guerin is coming off a dream year, in many respects.

A few days before the 2025-26 NHL season began, he signed Kirill Kaprizov to what was then the biggest contract in the history of the game. In December of last year, he orchestrated what is widely regarded as the biggest trade in the 25-year history of the franchise, sending a package of players and a high draft pick to Vancouver and bringing star defenseman Quinn Hughes to Minnesota. And two months after Team USA’s star-spangled celebration in Milan, Guerin’s Wild team won a playoff series for the first time in a decade.

In June, when his wife Kara and members of the team’s front office surprised Guerin at a Lake Minnetonka restaurant, handing him the trophy given annually to the NHL’s top general manager, he may have been the only one who was truly surprised by the honor.

But Guerin, who will turn 56 in November, acknowledged that the trophy which truly matters at the end of the season is the one he lifted twice during his 1,200-game NHL career — the Stanley Cup.

The Wild, it is generally acknowledged, are among a half-dozen or so teams considered realistic contenders for that trophy in the coming season. So with training camp set to begin this week and the season opener looming on Oct. 1 in Nashville, Guerin isn’t looking back on anything that happened in the previous 12 months.

“If you take too much time to stop and think about how good you are, people are going to pass you by,” he said. “It’s nice, and I enjoy it and appreciate it. I had a good year, but this is very much a business of ‘What have you done for me lately?’ and this is a new year, and you can’t just rest on that. We do still have unfinished business here in Minnesota that we’ve got to try to accomplish.”

Pain before parades

The NHL’s Eastern Conference Final in 1994 was the stuff of legend. Two teams with home rinks roughly 10 miles apart from each other — the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils — went the distance in a back and forth series renowned more than three decades later for overtime drama. The Rangers, who prevailed in Game 7, and eventually won the Stanley Cup, hadn’t been the NHL champions since before World War II previously, and have not hung a banner since then.

The Devils, who had a hard-nosed Guerin on their roster in his second NHL season, had been widely regarded as a also-ran franchise up to that point. But they overcame the disappointment of coming so close in 1994, and won the Cup a year later.

Asked if he feels the Wild are in a similar window of opportunity as his mid-1990s Devils, Guerin said it’s all about the hurt and sacrifice a team, and a fan base, has to endure to reach the pinnacle.

“It’s not necessarily the window of opportunity, it’s the pain that you go through to get there,” Guerin said. “You look at the Rangers who won (in 1994). They hadn’t won since 1940, so they went through a lot of pain. The Devils, through their inaugural season up to that point, had been going through a lot of pain every year.”

The comparison holds true for the team that lifted the Cup in 2026, he believes.

“Look at Carolina. How many times had Carolina reached the conference finals and not been able to get over the line until this year?,” Guerin asked. Before winning the Cup last season, the Hurricanes had been to the 2023 and 2025 conference finals, and had fallen short. “So there’s a lot of pain involved along the way, and we’ve been through ours. You can’t hide from it, you just have to embrace it. Because it really does make you stronger.”

The next hurdle

The story of the summer for the Wild has been Hughes, who can become a free agent on July 1, 2027, if not signed to an extension by Guerin. It was the question the GM was asked, repeatedly, during a media tour of the Minnesota State Fair in late August.

In every case, the answer was “we’re working on it,” and “I can’t say much more.” Guerin offered a flat out “no” when one radio host asked for a pledge that the GM would resign if Hughes was not extended and left Minnesota next summer.

Speaking to reporters last week at a NHL media tour in Las Vegas, Hughes downplayed the urgency of getting a contract done before training camp, and said for him personally, it was important to get some time away from the rink during the summer.

“Well it’s nice that he did,” Guerin joked, when asked about his superstar blue line man getting some time to rest and relax.

For a GM, there is never a true “off season” and when the games end, June and July can be some of the busiest times of the year. For example, Guerin and the Wild made a few small free agent moves in early July, and made a trade that brought forward Blake Coleman and defenseman Olli Maatta here, sending fan-favorite defenseman Jake Middleton to Calgary. Plus there was the non-stop Hughes talk, and plenty of speculation about Detroit center Dylan Larkin putting the Wild on his short list when demanding a trade.

Guerin admitted that amid all the noise, he and Kara did manage to get away for a few days anyway. She is originally from southern New Jersey, and after years of traveling to visit family there, the Guerins bought a place on the ocean 10 years ago. Their beach house has a distant view of the Atlantic City lights, and provides some fleeting moments of summer solitude. He said Kara never asks him to turn off his cell phone, but that is strategic as well.

“I’m so lucky because my family is so supportive and understanding of how busy my job is and has been, especially with the addition of the Olympics and all the Team USA stuff. So I get a ton of support,” Guerin said. “My wife is very supportive, but there are times when she kind of lets me find out for myself that I need to put the phone down for a little bit. She doesn’t really say anything. She’s always supportive. Sometimes I get the side eye, but then I really deserve it.”

Turkey legs and trade talk

Like a good adopted Minnesotan, Guerin has come to love his annual State Fair trips. There’s the food and the spectacle, as expected. And in a place where hockey is the official state sport, by law, he also gets plenty of helpful advice from fans on contracts that should be signed and trades that should be made.

“You kind of forget the position you’re in and you’re walking through and people are saying, ‘Hey, get Kaprizov signed’ or ‘Get Quinn signed’ or whatever and it’s kind of funny,” he said. “Some people come up and offer more help, which is always welcomed. I don’t mind that. The Fair is always really fun for me.”

And it’s a reminder of the Wild fan base and their hunger to finally bring the Stanley Cup here, 60 years after the NHL made its first foray into Minnesota. Last year went really well, and garnered high expectations statewide. Guerin made that happen, but knows none of it will matter unless they do it again, and even better, starting next month.

“It’s just like when I was a player. Whether you had a good year or a bad year the year before, training camp comes and it’s a new year,” Guerin said. “Nobody cares what happened last year. You’ve got to be ready, and I’m ready.”