Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio with Steve Kouleas and Andrew Raycroft and was asked about what Bill Guerin and the Minnesota Wild will do this offseason and how Filip Gustavsson could be in play.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
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Steve Kouleas: “And going on in Minnesota. We talked for a long time with Billy Guerin about making tough decisions on, of course, Suter and Parise. Both still around. Zach might win the Stanley Cup this year and he’s playing pretty darn good. Where are we at with their situation roster wise that flexibility? Can anything major happen this offseason?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Well, you know, there’s one (big) year left on their big buyouts, and well, if Dallas wins and Colorado wins, we may see these two battle each other to get to the Conference Finals. But there’s one more year left of the big cap, and then it drops down to $833,003 for the next few seasons. That’s a heck of a lot more palatable than the seven-plus million cap hit, $7.4 or whatever it is, that goes against it for one more season.
So there is some chatter that Billy Guerin may look to start to get a head start on his activity, which he will certainly do this time next year. He wants to be very active, you’ll have the cap space to do it. And yes, with the cap going up, gives everybody a little bit of flexibility now, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see and there is some talk now that Minnesota is at least exploring the market to see if there’s any opportunity to shed a little bit of one. One of the names they are exploring is Filip Gustavsson.”
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Kouleas: “Good stuff, love the silly season. We have Dave back. We’re gonna try one more time. You got cut off under the Brooklyn Bridge talking about Minnesota and it was intriguing with everything that was going on. So I’ll re-ask you what’s going on in Minnesota this offseason?”
Pagnotta: “Yeah, I think, you know, Coolio. Sorry about that. But I think they are getting a head start or want to get a head start on making some longer-term decisions because of the extra cap space that everybody has.
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They’re gonna look to add to their roster upfront. I mean, they’d like to add a center; everybody’s looking for a centerman that Philly into that mix a few others, but I think from their perspective with respect to Gustavsson and Marc-Adnre Fleury coming back for another year, I’m wondering if they dangle him to make a move to create cap space or move out of body and fill a hole that they have on that roster.
I think that’s something to look forward to as we’re talking about the draft. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some chatter of this pick-up.”
Raycroft: “Got say that that’s really interesting what they do in goal there.”