Watched the Guerin vids on Youtube as well and agree.
He seems like a more normal and reasonable person than Fenton, so that's nice I guess and I bet he's better at communicating and building relationships, but can't say that he instilled much confidence in me. He didn't really say anything worthwhile about the team. He did the exact same "well I have to evaluate things as we move forward" thing as Fenton did, which is absolutely perplexing to me as you'd imagine a guy who works in the NHL and is being hired the GM would already fully know what the team and the players are, the strengths and weaknesses and so for but apparently this is an impossible ask for new GMs. Seems like they are incapable of evaluating the team and its players unless they literally sit in the Wild executive suite under contract.
He also went on about the need for "character" and "sacrificing for the team", which is a very kind of traditional populist hockey jargon/rhetoric. I'm always waiting for a GM to say "well we need talent, our players need to be better than the opposition players", but for whatever reason that also seems to be an impossible ask. Does he at least internally realize that things like character and sacrifice are useless without talent? Not sure.
He kept saying how this team has everything to succeed, like a committed owner and a great fan base. Those things that Pittsburgh had as well. He didn't really talk about this one other important thing in order to have success, which is, you know, the roster. The players on the ice who in the end determine whether you win or lose. Was waiting for someone to ask him "you guys had Crosby and Malkin in Pittsburgh, you think that had anything to do with the success you had? We don't have those kind of centers here", but not this time at least.
Again, not a very confidence-inspiring start. No idea what he thinks about the team (or if he thinks anything about the team) or what's the strategy going forward. Or what he thinks about success in the NHL in general. But we'll see.