How close are the Wild to pushing the panic button?

Pressure is mounting on Minnesota as they have gone 5-6-2 in the last 13 games.

The Minnesota Wild opens a seven-game homestand Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights and if the lengthy stretch in St. Paul doesn't go well there will be big pressure on the team to hit the panic button. But they haven't gone into panic mode just yet. 

Michael Russo interviewed Wild GM Bill Guerin on his Straight from the Source podcast this week and Guerin made it clear that he's staying as patient as he can before the March 3 trade deadline – and how things go on the homestand could dictate his decisions. 

“We’re still just not in a position where we want to give up first- and second-round picks for somebody we know that will be a rental," Guerin said. "We hope that [Jordan] Greenway can start scoring more, [Ryan]Hartman can start scoring more, [Marcus] Foligno can start scoring more — guys like that can just start contributing offensively a little a little bit more. That would be the best scenario because then we can solve a lot of things, a lot of problems internally."

Greenway, Hartman and Foligno have not carried their weight offensively this season. They did last season and that's part of the reason why Minnesota, after 50 games last season, had 65 points. This year they're sitting at 58 points and clinging to the last wild card spot while trying to chase down Colorado (58 points), Winnipeg (65 points) and Dallas (70 points) in the Central Division. 

Foligino has four goals and 11 assists in 41 games. He had 23 goals in 2021-22. 

Hartman missed significant time after injuring his shoulder in a fight and has only five goals in 28 games after scoring 34 last season. 

Greenway, whom Russo says is being actively shopped by the Wild, has two goals and is a minus-1 rating after posting a plus-26 when on the ice last season. 

According to CapFriendly, the Wild have $10.8 million in cap space but any contracts they take on before the trade deadline need to be rentals because they are cap-strapped in 2023-24. 

"Lots of cap space where we could do something, but we can’t have anybody signed past this year, so we don’t want to give up prospects and things like that," Guerin told Russo. "So we’ve kind of got one foot in, one foot out, but I think over the next couple of weeks we’ll really be able to kind of dial in and figure out what we’re going to do."

According to Tankathon, Minnesota has the fifth-hardest remaining schedule in the Western Conference – and their seven straight home games are against five teams that are currently in playoff position (Vegas, New Jersey, Colorado, Dallas, Los Angeles) and two against teams that are just outside of the top eight (Nashville, Florida).  

This could be a make-or-break stretch for the Wild, with Guerin tasked with making the difficult to decision to go big for scoring help at the deadline and giving up prospects or going into sell mode to reset and take another stab at success next season. 

Related: James van Riemsdyk on the Minnesota Wild's trade radar?