Team USA Hockey Undecided on Bill Guerin as GM?

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Team USA GM Bill Guerin : Ottawa Senators at Minnesota Wild
Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Wild (90 points) are back on the ice Thursday night, looking for their second-straight victory overy the Chicago Blackhawks, this time in St. Paul. It took overtime to get it done Tuesday, but they got the two points they needed in the game.

And they’ll need two more tonight if they want to keep up with Colorado (98 points) and Dallas (96 points) who both got points last night when they went to overtime against each other, before the Stars scored the winning OT goal.

Meanwhile, MN Wild players, executives and coaches who were part of Team USA’s Olympic run out in Milan are finally coming down from the nation’s first Gold Medal since 1980.

Bill Guerin’s status as Team USA GM up in the air?

Obviously, the man responsible for building that squad was none other than Wild president of hockey operations, Bill Guerin, who has served as Team USA’s general manager for the past two years, after he was chosen to build the American 2025 4 Nations and 2026 Olympic rosters.

But according to an article co-written at The Athletic by Michael Russo and Pierre LeBrun, it’s possible Team USA’s 2030 Olympic roster is built by someone other than Billy G, though the most likely scenario is that he’s offered the job first.

Now that Doug Armstrong has stepped down from Hockey Canada, Team USA will have to decide, with respect to managing the upcoming World Cup and 2030 Olympics, whether to run it back with Olympic gold medal-winning GM Bill Guerin or choose new leadership.

USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher told The Athletic there is no timetable for a decision. It would seem likely that USA Hockey first offers the job to Guerin, and then it’ll be up to him whether to accept.

The Athletic

Throughout the Olympic roster building process, Bill Guerin took a ton of heat, and rightfully so, as he left some of the most talented American players on the planet off the final Milan roster. In the end, Guerin’s recipe proved to be perfect.

That’s why, while Team USA has yet to decide for sure, the final decision on his future as American general manager is likely up to Bill Guerin, himself.

And if he does choose to step down, not only could the MN Wild president of hockey operations be able to plan out how and when he leaves Team USA, but he might even be allowed to handpick his successor.

MN Wild PoHO could pick Team USA successor (if he steps down)

That’s why Russo and LeBrun float a transition process that Team USA “could” copy from Team Canada. In that scenario, Guerin would hand-pick a possible successor to build the upcoming 2028 World Cup roster. Then, Billy would step in for the 2030 Olympics.

In Canada’s case, their general manager Doug Armstrong (Blues GM) had Don Sweeney build the 2025 4 Nations roster, before Armstrong then built the Olympic roster, which won Silver (lossed to Team USA in OT of the Gold Medal game).

Possible options to replace the Minnesota Wild PoHO as Team USA’s GM, according to The Athletic, include Bill Zito (Panthers GM), Stan Bowman (Oilers GM), Tom Fitzgerald (Devils PoHO) and Chris Drury (Rangers PoHO).

One option would be for Guerin to do what Armstrong did with the 4 Nations Face-Off, and that’s oversee another GM (in that case, Don Sweeney) in the 2028 World Cup and then assume the role of GM for the Olympics. If that were the case, some options to be World Cup GM would be Bill Zito, Stan Bowman, Tom Fitzgerald or Chris Drury.

The Athletic
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