Editor's note: This story appears in the June/July issue of New England Hockey Journal.
It’s been almost a full decade since Bill Guerin (Wilbraham, Mass.) skated his last shift as an NHL power forward. Since then he’s been working his way up the hockey management ladder, culminating in his inaugural campaign as general manager of the Minnesota Wild, in a season that was suspended by the novel coronavirus.
Guerin spoke earlier this spring about the NHL season having been put on hold, and how he was readying to pick things up again whenever the league gave the go-ahead, while looking back on his own career.
First and foremost has been keeping in touch with his staff, scouts and players while practicing social distancing, as the days dragged by with no games played during what is normally a frenzied time of the season.
“With the technology today, it’s not super-difficult,” said Guerin by phone from Minneapolis.
He admitted it wasn’t an ideal situation — having to use video chats, social media, e-mail and other proprietary communications applications, as opposed to in-person face-to-face conversations — but added that he and others in hockey were getting by in an altogether changed world. “We’re doing what we have to do,” said Guerin.
That includes readying for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, whenever and however that takes place, minus the usual sit-down meetings.
“We’re still going on with all our preparation, and it’s the same process,” he said of selecting the next round of skaters to potentially put on a Wild jersey. “It may be over the phone, and video calls, but we feel we’ll be ready for anything.”
The Wild last played in a 5-4 overtime win at Anaheim on March 8 before the season was suspended, with Minnesota (35-27-7 overall) hovering on the edge of a wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference. They went 8-4-0 in a dozen contests under interim head coach and former NHL player Dean Evason, after Bruce Boudreau was let go in mid-February.
“That was my call,” said Guerin. “Bruce is a good coach, and under the circumstances did a pretty good job.”
Boudreau, a former NHL player who also cameoed in the cult hockey film “Slap Shot,” had helmed the Wild since 2016-17, after earlier NHL head coaching stints with Washington and Anaheim. Minnesota had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in Boudreau’s first two years, before missing the postseason altogether in 2018-19.
“The players needed a different voice,” said Guerin. “Dean came in and did a fine job, and it was just that time. Bruce had a good run here, but it was time to make a change.”
Guerin, 49, came to the Wild after spending the previous five seasons as the assistant GM with the Pittsburgh Penguins, whom he helped to Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017. He also served as GM with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh’s top affiliate in the American Hockey League.
“I worked with some great people in Pittsburgh,” said Guerin. “I learned a lot, and it was a great experience. Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford were fantastic to me, and let me grow.”
Coming to a hockey-mad market like Minnesota also has been a positive, and Guerin remarked that Wild owner Craig Leipold has been “fantastic” to work for, ever since the New England native moved to the Twin Cities from western Pennsylvania last year with his family. They include Guerin’s son, Liam, a 6-foot-4 forward for the Salisbury School in Connecticut.
“I feel like a pretty lucky guy,” said the elder Guerin.
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The former NHL forward actually got his start in hockey operations as Pittsburgh’s development coach. He worked with the Penguins’ minor league, junior and college prospects for three years, shortly after he retired in 2010 following a 19-year professional playing career.
“That was the best thing I ever did, and it’s one of the best jobs you can have in hockey,” stated Guerin. “I’m so fortunate that Ray (Shero) let me get around every department — amateur scouts, pro scouts, the coaches in both Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. I was involved with the players directly, and I got to see what they did and where we wanted to go.”
He thanked Jason Botterill, Tom Fitzgerald (Billerica, Mass.), Jason Karmanos, Randy Sexton and several others who also assisted him on his way up.
“So many people helped me,” admitted Guerin. “As a player, you have no idea what goes on (behind the scenes). There’s a lot of moving parts, and you have to take the time to learn what goes on.”
That included serving as a GM in the AHL for two seasons with the Baby Penguins, including last season after Guerin had first interviewed for the Minnesota GM job, which went to Paul Fenton (Springfield, Mass.) at the time.
“That was critical,” said Guerin of overseeing Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. “I got to run my own team, and a lot goes into that. I learned how to deal with budgets, and to allocate money to areas of the roster that needed improvement.”
He also remarked it was about learning to not only build a competitive team at the top minor-league level, but also to work in conjunction with the parent organization to develop players for the big club.
“To get that experience was great,” said Guerin, who now monitors Minnesota’s minor-league affiliates, the Iowa Wild (AHL) and the Allen Americans (ECHL).
Guerin’s coaching and managerial career has directly followed a pro playing tenure that lasted from 1992 to 2010. He tallied 429 goals and 427 assists for 856 points to go with 1,660 penalty minutes in 1,263 NHL regular-season games, and added 39-35-74 points in 140 Stanley Cup playoff contests.
After starting with New Jersey, which drafted him fifth overall in 1989, he subsequently suited up with Edmonton, Boston, Dallas, St. Louis and San Jose. He endured several trades in his career and captained the New York Islanders before finishing his official playing days in Pittsburgh. He recorded a dozen 20-goal seasons and three 30-goal campaigns and notched a career-high 41 goals with his home-state Bruins in 2001-02 when he also was named an NHL second-team All-Star that year.
He also lifted the Stanley Cup twice as a player, in 1995 with the Devils and in 2009 with the Penguins. After playing the 2010 preseason with Philadelphia, Guerin formally retired as a player that December, and was publicly honored by the Penguins prior to a game against New Jersey that same month.
Guerin’s involvement in pro hockey and the NHL was just getting underway when he entered the second phase of his career. The full-fledged transition from player to management, though, took some time.
“Early on, it was really hard,” he admitted. “I had just stopped playing, and you watch games and you think you can still play. It took a couple of years for that to go away.”
Retaining some of that player’s mentality, however, actually has helped Guerin as he’s made his way up the managerial rungs, especially when a current player might experience an off night or two during what is an interminably long season.
“You do your best to remember situations as a player, so you don’t unfairly treat your players,” he said. “If they have a long stretch of poor play, you want to find out why and help them. You try hard to recall your own feelings as a player, to help guys rather than beat them up.”
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Guerin starred at his hometown Wilbraham and Monson Academy, but prototypically played his formative hockey with the renowned Springfield Olympics junior program, then of the New England Junior Hockey League. Nowadays almost all NCAA Division 1 players skate at least one season of Junior A hockey before transitioning to the college ranks, but that wasn’t necessarily the case back in the 1980s.
“It was the best road I could take,” admitted Guerin of playing for the Pics and their renowned head coach, the late Gary Dineen. “He was way ahead of his time, and what people are doing now, he was doing back in the ’80s — not just the number of games, but the hours of practice and skill development — and we were lucky to have him.”
Guerin ultimately played four seasons with the Pics, registering three 30-goal seasons and four 20-goal years. He collected 123 goals in 149 appearances with Springfield, before heading off to Boston College.
In two seasons at The Heights, Guerin recorded 40 goals and 30 assists for 70 points and helped the Eagles to two NCAA tournament berths, including the 1990 national semifinals in Detroit. BC also won the 1990 Hockey East tournament that was played entirely on campus sites due to a measles outbreak at the University of Maine that spring, an eerie precursor 30 years prior to the current coronavirus pandemic.
“I needed that time to grow physically and to mature, and I grew quite a bit at BC as a person,” recalled Guerin, who was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2017. “I had a lot of great times there, and BC was my dream school. I loved it, and it had a huge impact on my life.”
In the summer of 2018, Guerin hired former BC teammate Mark Dennehy (Dorchester, Mass.) to coach Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. Soon after, the New Jersey Devils asked Pittsburgh for permission to interview Dennehy. Guerin and the Penguins obliged, and the Devils later hired Dennehy as head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Devils.
“Billy is a good friend,” said Dennehy at the time. “I can’t thank him enough for how he treated me, and I wasn’t surprised at all (that he let me move on).”
As a sophomore at BC, Guerin led Hockey East in total goals, before moving on to the U.S. National Team. He had earlier represented the U.S. at both the 1989 and 1990 World Junior Championships, the first two times he would answer his country’s call.
“Any time you put that USA jersey on, it was awesome,” said Guerin, who is still involved with USA Hockey. “I loved it. I had some great teammates over the years, and some great experiences, and it was just awesome.”
After skating in 46 games with Team USA on its pre-Olympic tour, Guerin turned pro with the AHL’s Utica Devils before making his NHL debut in the spring of 1992. That run included a six-game playoff stint in New Jersey, where he tallied his first three NHL goals in a first-round series against the New York Rangers.
He played another 18 games with Utica in 1992-93, and then was in the NHL to stay until he hung up his competitive skates. In 1993-94, Guerin scored 25 goals as the parent Devils came up one game short of the Stanley Cup final. The year after, he helped New Jersey to its first-ever Stanley Cup title by tallying 25 points in the strike-shortened 1994-95 NHL regular season, before adding another 11 points in 20 postseason outings.
He again hoisted Lord Stanley’s prize 14 years later with Pittsburgh, having bested the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL final in both instances. Ironically, another team wearing red and white won the NCAA men’s hockey title in both those seasons — Boston University — a team Guerin had battled for two years when he was at BC.
“It’s as great a rivalry as there is,” he said. “They’ve got a hell of a program there, and they’ll win some, too.”
He counts former longtime BU head coach, the legendary Jack Parker (Somerville, Mass.), among his friends, along with some other former Terriers. “So many BC and BU guys are so tight,” said Guerin. “It’s crazy. As much as you hated each other and each other’s schools, we get along great (now).”
Both Beanpot schools played significant roles in Pittsburgh’s most recent Stanley Cup championships, with head coach Mike Sullivan (Marshfield, Mass.) and forward Nick Bonino (Unionville, Conn.) hailing from BU, and Guerin and defenseman Brian Dumoulin (Biddeford, Maine) representing BC.
That current Commonwealth Avenue camaraderie even extends to Broadway and the Metropolitan Division rival Rangers, helmed by head coach David Quinn (Cranston, R.I./BU) and assistant coach Greg Brown (Southboro, Mass./BC), who skated against each other in Hockey East play in the late 1980s.
In terms of seeking talent to stock Minnesota’s roster, Guerin said the Wild seeks all types of players, and he doesn’t necessarily gravitate to skaters who remind him of his own playing style — big, fast, strong and with a scoring touch.
A three-time NHL All-Star Game selection, Guerin won the fastest skater competition at the 2001 NHL All-Star Game and was named the contest’s MVP after tallying three goals and five points.
“You have to realize, the type of player I was, I depended on playmaking centers, and guys who could move the puck and make skilled plays,” chuckled Guerin. “We want a certain team identity, with all types of players — big up-and-down wingers, puck-moving defensemen, creative centers. You have to build around something.”
Building is something Guerin has gotten good at, as Pittsburgh GM Rutherford told Minnesota’s ownership when Guerin again interviewed for the job with the Wild.
“I just told him the obvious,” said Rutherford to DKPittsburghSports.com about a conversation he had with Craig Leipold regarding Guerin’s candidacy with Minnesota. “That (Guerin) has worked hard to get to this place, he’s done a good job developing players in the Penguins organization over the last few years, and his leadership qualities have always helped our organization. Not only as a player, but in the front office.”
In addition to his NHL accomplishments, Guerin made his mark as a player on the international stage. He helped the Americans to the inaugural World Cup title in 1996 and appeared in three Olympic Winter Games, notching five goals and eight points in 16 outings. He earned an Olympic silver medal with the U.S. in Salt Lake City in 2002, where he again got to play under the tutelage of his former Utica head coach, Herb Brooks, the hard-driving architect of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” that inspired many players from Guerin’s generation.
“Herb was great,” recalled Guerin, who himself was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013. “By that time he had softened a bit, but you saw he still had the fire and the focus. It was a great experience, and he did a great job with that team.”
Now Guerin is seeking to do a great job of his own, with his own team at hockey’s highest level, working to one day bring a Stanley Cup to the “State of Hockey” — whenever the NHL hits the ice again.
If the NHL returns, the Wild would play the Vancouver Canucks in a best-of-five qualifying-round series.
“I’m hoping the season resumes,” he said. “We’re preparing right now, and if it does, we’ll get up and go pretty quickly.”
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