Jesse Pierce

You know, it wasn't his best performance.

It's nothing to panic about.

I do believe those circumstances sometimes can get a little bit blown out of proportion.

And I think Billy's got a ton of confidence in him, and he did the contract extension for a reason.

That being said, you know, if you're the Minnesota Wild and if you're Bill Guerin and you're looking at some of those options at trade deadline,

You know, it's got to give you just a little bit of cause, right?

And, you know, you look at last year and the impact that Marc-Andre Fleury had, and you remember that in that series against the Vegas Golden Knights in a game, I still think the Wild felt like they should have won game five in Sin City.

Remember, after two periods, Gustafson had to pull himself because he was sick, which also happened at the Four Nations tournament last year.

I think he's always been a better goalie when he's got somebody there with him to push him.

And so the big risk to me would be, obviously, you spent a first-round draft pick and developed this kid in Jesper Volstead into what looks like a very, very good NHL goalie.

Are you willing to throw that out there as a chip at trade deadline and risk that now you just have one guy that has yet to take you where you need to go?

Big risk, right?

And Billy Guerin gets paid the big money for making those big decisions, but it's a tough, tough call.

I believe the Wilder are a better team with that one-two tandem, but

You can only play one guy, Jess.

And if you got a guy that you believe in and you can get a frontline center, a guy like Robert Thomas, who plays in St.

Louis, that might be tempting for the wild.

I think he's fantastic.

Well, the thing is,

Again, Trochek's a nice player, and he showed that as a part of the gold medal push that culminated yesterday.