Neal: Minnesota Wild leader Bill Guerin, money in his pocket, remains set up to strike. Think trade deadline

We all had our shopping lists ready as July 1 approached. NHL free agency was near, and Wild President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin was finally in position to show how he can shape a roster with no salary limitations.

It has been difficult to assess Guerin’s tenure with the Wild since July 2021, when he bought out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. He has shown he has a good eye for talent, is presiding over one of the top five farm systems in the league and has one of the top 15 players in hockey in Kirill Kaprizov.

But Guerin has operated with a $14.7 million cap hit for nearly four seasons because of the Parise and Suter contracts.

Now, the shackles are off.

So who did the Wild sign? Sam Bennett? Brock Nelson? Brock Boeser?

As it turned out, they were victims of bad timing.

The market was impacted by the league increasing the salary cap. The extra space allowed teams to retain their own players. Bennett, Boeser, Nelson and others re-signed with their old teams. Boeser, from Burnsville, was expected to be on the move but stayed in Vancouver for seven years with an average annual value of $7.3 million.

As much as salaries, contract length was more than Guerin was comfortable with. He was ready to shop, but the shelves were bare. And the cap is set to rise another $8.5 million before 2026-27 and another $9.5 million before 2027-28.

Guerin’s tenure will now be under scrutiny over the next several months. Having his hands tied because of the buyouts made it difficult to add depth to the roster, so we haven’t seen what a fully funded roster looks like.

He could easily have forced a splashy move but has been more calculated than that. Guerin will wait for the right time and the right player to take the Wild to the next level.

For now, Guerin has pivoted. He is taking a flyer on Vladimir Tarasenko, hoping he can turn the clock back a few years. He signed Nico Sturm to help with faceoffs and the penalty kill. Perhaps he’s not done.

Guerin believes the Wild are a better team because of the moves. Sturm’s return helps the bottom six. But let’s see what version of Tarasenko we’re getting before we declare how much better the Wild are.

What Guerin can benefit from is heading into the season safely under the salary cap. He frequently shuffled players to and from the Iowa club just for wiggle room under the cap. No more of that.

Guerin has just under $10 million to work with, uncharted territory for him. His biggest signing will be locking up Kaprizov to a long-term deal, which shouldn’t a problem with the salary cap increasing over three consecutive seasons. But Guerin can now strike at the trade deadline because he can take on some salary.

I’m writing this on the Fourth of July, the 13th anniversary of the signings of Parise and Suter, a seismic development in Twin Cities sports history and just as big of a disappointment because of what they failed to deliver.

The 2012-13 NHL season was shortened to 48 games because of a lockout by owners. The Wild didn’t play a game until Jan. 19, a 4-2 victory over Colorado.

It was a highly anticipated opener at Xcel Energy Center. Not because of the wait to begin the campaign. Because it was the debut of Parise and Suter.

I happened to be in Alary’s Bar — big surprise — following the game. A fan walked past me, yelling to no one in particular: “We’re bringing Lord Stanley’s Cup home!”

Wild fans are still waiting for the Stanley Cup to tour bars and restaurants across Minnesota — and not because someone from this state won one with another team. The Wild didn’t even reach the conference semifinals with Parise and Suter and still haven’t since they left.

But at least they took a shot at a couple of big-fish free agents. There’s a baseball team in the area that, in 2023, won a postseason series for the first time in 21 years and marked the achievement by reducing payroll.

So, this not a cautionary tale about how signing Parise and Suter failed to achieve the desired results. Far from it. It’s been 13 years since then, and the Wild should swing big again. It just might take a while to happen.

Meanwhile, I will compile a list of trade targets.