Wild GM Bill Guerin Bashes Playoff Format, But Does It Need To Change?

The Minnesota Wild are gearing up for another playoff appearance, and GM Bill Guerin has pushed a lot of his chips to the center of the table by bringing in defenseman Quinn Hughes.

But there's one thing that could be a problem for the Wild, and it's something completely out of their control.

They play in the Central Division.

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The Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Wild have run away with the division — and the entire Western Conference, for that matter — but that also means that they're on postseason collision courses with each other.

In all likelihood, two of those teams will play each other in the first round, with the winner moving on to play the first-place finisher, who will make short work of their opponent.

But then that means that only one of these teams can get to the conference final, despite being easily the best three in the regular season.

"It’s funny, we talk about it a lot. Personally, I would like to see it change, but I understand why we don’t," Guerin said of the current format, per TSN. "It goes year to year. I think this year is just really unique in that you have these three really strong teams all in one division. You don’t see that a ton."

Sure, this is an outlier, but it's something to consider.

Bill Guerin’s Wild face a brutal Central Division playoff path, with the Avalanche and Stars set for early clashes under the NHL’s current format. (Getty Images)

I like that this format fixed one flaw in the NHL's old format, which was giving division winners the No. 1 through 3 seeds. Sometimes that resulted in the No. 6 seed in a 3-6 matchup being a team that had a better regular season.

That's just weird, and I remember it happening when the old Southeast Division (TBL, FLA, CAR, ATL, and WSH) was at its worst.

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However, that format's reseeding, if used now, would mean that these teams wouldn't run into each other until the Conference Final.

You want the two best teams playing for the right to compete for a Stanley Cup. But if you're those teams, wouldn't you want to get your toughest series over with early, before injuries start piling up?

There's no perfect way to do it, and there will always be quirks, but I think this version works.

And it also gives us the benefit of filling out brackets, which I guarantee you factored into the league's decision.

I think Guerin just knows that his team is facing a much harder path to the Stanley Cup Final than they would have any other year.