ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Wild have entered a critical offseason, able to fully participate in free agency again after two years of significant salary cap constraints.
Without an NHL playoff series win in the last 10 years, the urgency for the club to build a deeper roster around a promising young core is high — putting the pressure on general manager Bill Guerin this summer and into the upcoming season.
“I’m more excited than anything. It’s been a long couple years, just dealing with this stuff and honestly just hearing about it,” said Guerin, who has been in his role for six years. “I want high expectations. I’m not doing this job sit in the corner or anything. These are big jobs. These are important jobs. There’s a lot of people out there who love the Minnesota Wild, and I’m trying to deliver something to them. We all are.”
The first order of business is clear: an extension for Kirill Kaprizov. The star left wing has one year left on his current contract.
“I’m very confident we’re going to get a deal done with Kirill. I think he really loves this market and this team,” Guerin said on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, five days after the Wild were eliminated on their home ice. “I think he feels that we’re going in the right direction.”
Kaprizov, who has 386 points in 319 regular season games and 21 points in 25 playoff games with the Wild, said as much over the weekend.
“I love everything here,” Kaprizov said. “Should be all good.”
The Wild barely got in the playoffs in part because Kaprizov missed half of the season with a lower-body injury that required surgery. With five goals and four assists in the six-game loss to Vegas in the first-round series, Kaprizov made clear he was fully recovered.
“He just wants to win, and I think this was a promising sign that our team can do it. We can get there. We’re so close,” said left wing Marcus Foligno, reflecting on the three straight one-goal losses that finished the series, including two in overtime. "I've got 100% confidence that we’ll get him here long term. Or I’ll just rip up his visa.”
Guerin made the bold move four years ago of buying out the contracts of franchise cornerstones Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The fresh start for team chemistry came at a cost, particularly for the last two seasons with the buyout charges accounting for about 17% of their salary cap. Those hits will be drastically reduced for 2025-26 and beyond until they're gone.
“I like to be aggressive. I don’t want to sit on my hands at all. I’m kind of tired of doing that,” Guerin said. "Since I walked through the door, my goal has been to build a championship-caliber team for this market, and that’s what I want to do. I don’t want to sign any stupid contracts or anything like that, but I want to make this team better than it is today.”
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Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov (97) talks with referee Eric Furlatt (27) during the second period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov (97) warms up before Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
FILE - Minnesota Wild NHL hockey team owner Craig Leipold, left, poses with new team general manager Bill Guerin at a press conference in St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 22, 2019. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP, file)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — A fire ripped through a bar’s New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight Thursday, with dozens of people feared dead and about 100 more injured, most seriously, police said.
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.
“Several tens of people” were presumed killed at the bar, Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference.
Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, but “that will take time and for the time being, it is premature to give you a more precise figure," Gisler said, adding that the community is “devastated.”
Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage.
“At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims, including some from different countries, officials said.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door.
Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames and likened what he saw to a horror movie as he watched from across the street.
Officials described how the blaze likely triggered the release of combustible gases that ignited violently and caused what English-speaking firefighters call a flashover or backdraft.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.
The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, Reynard said.
Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
In a region busy with tourists skiing on the slopes, the authorities have called on the local population to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require medical resources that are already overwhelmed.
With high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region's snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit. The resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before the Milan Cortina Olympics in February. The town's Crans-sur-Sierre golf club stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course.
The Swiss blaze on Thursday came 25 years after an inferno in the Dutch fishing town of Volendam on New Year’s Eve, which killed 14 people and injured more than 200 as they celebrated in a cafe.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin said in a social media post that the government’s “thoughts go to the victims, to the injured and their relatives, to whom it addresses its sincere condolences.”
Thursday was Parmelin’s first day in office as the seven members of Switzerland’s government take turns holding the presidency for one year. Out of respect for the families of the victims, he delayed a traditional New Year’s address to the nation meant to be broadcast Thursday afternoon, Swiss broadcasters SRF and RTS reported.
Dazio reported from Berlin and Leicester reported from Paris. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the name of Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
From left, Mathias Reynard, State Councillor and president of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais, Stephane Ganzer, State Councillor and head of the Department of Security, Institutions and Sport of the Canton of Valais, Frederic Gisler, Commander of the Valais Cantonal Police and Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais during a press conference in Lens, following a fire that broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
From left, Mathias Reynard, State Councillor and president of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais, Stephane Ganzer, State Councillor and head of the Department of Security, Institutions and Sport of the Canton of Valais, Frederic Gisler, Commander of the Valais Cantonal Police, Beatrice Pilloud, Attorney General of the Canton of Valais and Nicole Bonvin-Clivaz, Vice-President of the Municipal Council of Crans-Montana during a press conference in Lens, following a fire that broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A skier walks in the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A banner stating that fireworks are prohibited due to the risk of fire is pictured near the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
