Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin says the team has done its part and is now playing the waiting game with restricted free-agent forward Kevin Fiala.
"We've made him a fair offer and he's deciding," Guerin told The Athletic's Michael Russo on Tuesday. "I understand the position he's in. I've been in it a couple times myself. We want to get him in as quick as possible because if you miss training camp, the chances of you having a good year aren't very good. We want to get him in here and get him going."
Fiala collected seven points in 19 games with the Wild after Minnesota acquired him from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Mikael Granlund ahead of last season's trade deadline.
The Wild open training camp Friday, and Fiala is the team's lone remaining RFA.
"I'm just speaking from experience that you're better off being in camp than not," Guerin said. "For Kevin's sake and our sake, I hope he's there, I really do."
Minnesota has nearly $8 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly.
Fiala, 23, produced 10 goals and 32 points in 64 games before the trade. The winger spent parts of five seasons with the Predators, who drafted him 11th overall in 2014.
Copyright © 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.