ST. PAUL, Minn. — One of the things that endears Bill Guerin to his players — and potentially annoys some of the fanbase — is how loyal he’s been to the core of this Minnesota Wild team.The Wild president of hockey operations and general manager has kept his confidence at every turn, despite all the first-round postseason exits. He has doubled down on bringing back his own free agents and hasn’t really flipped any for assets like other GMs might.Well, that’s starting to change. We don’t know what sparked it: Whether it was the team’s no-show in a must-win Game 4 against the Colorado Avalanche, the blown three-goal lead in Game 5, or the franchise’s present status in “win now” mode.But over the past week, in saying goodbye to veterans Mats Zuccarello (via free agency) and Jake Middleton (via trade), Guerin has talked a lot about being a “younger” and “different” team. They also moved on from Vladimir Tarasenko and watched Marcus Johansson sign in Sweden. Between all that turnover — and there might be more to come — the team will welcome a half-dozen new faces.NHL free agency: Early winners and losersShayna Goldman and Madison EadesWhat made Guerin decide his roster needed a shakeup?“Not that we would have been complacent if we brought the same group back, but we’ve done that for the past number of years,” Guerin said. “We did take a step, but I just felt like … this was time to maybe get a little younger, maybe get a little faster, maybe a little bit of change because that’s good, too.“You don’t want to just keep rolling out the same thing year after year after year and expect different results. A little bit of tweak here and there is sometimes good. I think it’s healthy for everybody.”These were challenging moves for Guerin to make. Both Zuccarello and Middleton were beloved by fans and teammates, key personalities in a tight dressing room. But in adding two-time Cup champions like Blake Coleman and Olli Määttä, they’re bringing in different voices and perspectives.Is Guerin worried about losing Middleton and Zuccarello?“There’s not a concern there,” he said. “Those two guys are fantastic. They’re always big personalities, fun to be around. Just good players and wonderful guys, great humans. I mean, I love those guys, but sometimes you just have to move on. You have to change a little bit here and there. I’m not concerned with that. Yeah, Middsy’s one of my favorite guys I’ve ever had, and the whole thing, how hard he played for us, always willing to stick up for teammates and things like that and just his personality, the no-shirt interviews and all that stuff. Yeah, he’s a wonderful guy, but sometimes this is a business. This is the business part of it. Sometimes it’s tough, but you have to move on.”The Wild roster was bound to turn over at some point, especially with the likes of captain Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman entering the final year of their deals. Jonas Brodin and Marcus Foligno have two years left.If there indeed ends up being a Dylan Larkin trade, there’s a good chance another familiar face or faces could be heading out the door. And if that makes some players uncomfortable, that could be a good thing. Kirill Kaprizov will find chemistry with other players — perhaps young Russian winger Maxim Shabanov, who was hand-delivered to Minnesota by Kaprizov’s agent after asking the New York Islanders to let him go.Despite the Wild coming off a strong season and getting out of the first round for the first time in a decade, Guerin recognizes that they need to be better. He pointed out that some improvement will come internally. Young prospects, like Hunter Haight and Charlie Stramel, among others, could find a role. Bobby Brink will have a golden opportunity to play regularly in the top nine.“Bringing in different guys is part of the business sometimes,” Guerin said. “We had a good year last year; (we) made a big step. We are a very good team. But the thing we can’t do is be complacent and be satisfied with what we did last year. We’ll have to look forward and see what we can do better.”Recent Stanley Cup champions have tweaked their cores en route to winning their titles. The Carolina Hurricanes added Nicolaj Ehlers and K’Andre Miller. The Florida Panthers made trades for Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, not to mention the seismic Matthew Tkachuk-Jonathan Huberdeau swap.The Tampa Bay Lightning added to their core before going on back-to-back title runs in 2020 and 2021, bringing in new voices like Luke Schenn, Kevin Shattenkirk and Zach Bogosian, who is now with the Wild.Coleman and Määttä will play a similar role for the Wild, Guerin hopes.“These guys know what it takes to grind through four rounds of the playoffs to the ultimate goal,” he said. “And I think when you have guys like that in your dressing room, it can only help.”Coleman could see firsthand in Tampa how the new players sent a jolt through the room.“Obviously, the nature of the business is faces are going to turn over, and you gotta find ways to retool,” Coleman said. “(The Wild) have a great core. They’ve had a lot of success, obviously, a good little run in the playoffs this year, and it seems like they’re getting better and better every day. Again, I just want to come in and play my game. Hopefully, I can give them a boost in areas where management felt that I could come help the team. They have a lot of pieces already, so it’s not changing much. It’s just coming in, being a good teammate, trying to help where you can and play your game. We’re just excited about the opportunity.”The new scouting chiefGuerin had planned to start a search this summer for a new director of amateur scouting to replace Judd Brackett, who left after six years to take an expanded role with the Toronto Maple Leafs.But once Guerin found out that Ricard Persson, their head European scout, was interested in the job, he felt it was a “no-brainer” to promote from within. Persson, in his 17th season with the Wild, led the team’s draft table for last month’s NHL draft, making three selections.Guerin announced the promotion in the days following the draft.“I think the world of Rico,” Guerin said. “He’s been here for a long time, he has a lot of experience, he worked with a lot different people in the organization, so I think he’s built up a lot of experience that way. He had his own ideas. Originally, I didn’t know if he would be interested in the job because he is based in Sweden, but he let it be known that he was interested. It was really a no-brainer for me.“I think loyalty plays a big part in it,” Guerin continued. “He’s been very loyal to the Minnesota Wild, but he’s also been very productive. He has also been a big part of some of the good players that we’ve drafted. Very organized, very professional, and the way that he works, the way he ran the meetings this past draft, was very impressive. I think the staff has a really high comfort level with him, too, in being able to speak their minds and know that they’re going to be listened to. And I think he’ll do a great job for us.”It’s not entirely common for the head of amateur scouting to be based out of Europe, and Persson will remain in Malmö, Sweden. But Guerin said he has experience with it, seeing another Swede in Patrik Allvin move from European scout to director of amateur scouting for the Pittsburgh Penguins before helping the team to consecutive titles in 2016 and 2017.“Rico played in the National Hockey League,” Guerin said. “Like, he understands the North American game. He has the ability to travel over here as many times as he needs to. I think a key component will be keeping the current guys that we have, and then maybe adding another guy or two that can really complement Rico and what he’s trying to do.”Määttä excited for new challengeMäättä was shopping in a grocery store in Jyväskylä, Finland, when he got the call Thursday from Calgary Flames GM Craig Conroy that he had been traded to the Wild. A few minutes later, the veteran defenseman got a call from Guerin, whom he knew well from their days in Pittsburgh.“It means a lot,” Määttä said of Guerin’s respect for him. “I’ve known him my whole career. He obviously was there in Pittsburgh when I got drafted as a young guy, and he was there in Wilkes-Barre when I first got there. So he’s been along my whole career, and it’s really cool that he really wanted me there. It does put pressure on you as well, which is good, I think, in my mind.“It’s also exciting just to be part of something like that, and I think remembering what it was like in Pittsburgh when we had good teams, it’s a pretty amazing feeling when you can be part of something bigger than yourself,” he went on. “You can kind of leave your pride and ego at home, and all you do, whatever it takes to win, and you do your role as good as you can and there’s no better feeling than that.”