ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin was in his kitchen rolling meatballs in December when Vancouver Canucks executive Jim Rutherford called to tell him the deal for Quinn Hughes was done.Six months later, one of the biggest blockbusters in NHL history became the defining move of a year for the Wild that culminated Friday with Guerin being named the NHL’s general manager of the year.At a Wayzata restaurant during the Wild’s pre-draft dinner for scouts and the front office on Thursday, Guerin’s wife, kids and mother surprised him by showing up to present him with the Jim Gregory Award. Assistant general manager Chris Kelleher, who has worked for every GM in Wild history, helped arrange the surprise, which was announced after the 16th pick of the NHL Draft.“I think he would be the first to say this: It’s a group thing,” said Kelleher, one of three Wild AGMs. “At the end of the day, they’re his decisions, and he’s the one who has to put his name on the line. But we’re all pitching in in our own different ways, and it’s all because we want to see him succeed as a GM and us succeed as a group and this team as a franchise. When I learned about the award, I got emotional and choked up. He had no idea. It was great.”Guerin’s long game for the Wild has nothing to do with an individual award, of course. It’s to become a Stanley Cup champion.But after spending years navigating the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter dead-cap penalties, resisting shortcuts and finally capitalizing by acquiring Quinn Hughes when the team regained financial flexibility, the award was affirmation that Guerin’s fellow 31 GMs, plus a panel of 10 other NHL executives and broadcast and print media, agreed this was a job well done.The Wild made the playoffs for the sixth time in Guerin’s seven years, hitting the 100-point mark for the third time in that span.Guerin’s bold year began in late September, when he signed Kirill Kaprizov to the most lucrative contract in NHL history (eight years, $136 million), then Filip Gustavsson to a five-year extension a few days later. His year continued by trading the equivalent of four first-round picks for Hughes, then adding Michael McCarron, Nick Foligno, Bobby Brink and Jeff Petry ahead of the trade deadline. Ultimately, the Wild advanced past the first round for the first time in 11 years before injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin derailed them in the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.Along the way, Guerin was also the USA Hockey general manager who stuck to his gut and left stars such as Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield and Adam Fox off the U.S. Olympic team in favor of players such as Vincent Trocheck, J.T. Miller and (before he was injured and had to bow out) Seth Jones. Highly scrutinized for the decisions, Guerin was vindicated in late February when the United States beat Canada in the final for its first men’s hockey Olympic gold medal since 1980.“And it drives him to want to bring a Stanley Cup here,” said Kelleher, who is also on Guerin’s USA Hockey front-office staff. “He made tough decisions and then was right about it. We helped put the team together and gave him our recommendations, but Billy was the one that had to put his name on the line to make those decisions. And he did, and he stood by them. He never wavered. He never questioned himself. And those types of decisions and that type of leadership are what we need to win the Stanley Cup.”Chris MacFarland (Colorado, now with the Nashville Predators) and Pat Verbeek (Anaheim Ducks) were the other finalists for the award. It’s the first time in four years the Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill didn’t win it.