Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will change the fate of many NHL franchises when they decide what outrageous contract offer they accept in the next day or so. It could be a matter of hours now. The Minnesota Wild remain in the fight for both players which says a lot when the other teams on the “short” lists are teams like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey.
It will change the fate of the Minnesota Wild more than any of those other teams. All of those other teams have won multiple Stanley Cups. The Minnesota Wild haven’t come close to winning a Stanley Cup. Say what you will about the remarkable run in 2003 that ended badly with a sweep by the Anaheim Ducks. Nobody saw that coming and it actually might’ve hurt the Wild in their development. After that run, expectations changed and since then, the Wild have either lost in the 1st round of the playoffs or missed the playoffs.
The Minnesota Wild have been in the middle of the NHL for years now and that’s the worst place to be. If you’re the 15th or so best team in the NHL, you are either barely making the playoffs facing a top seed or missing the playoffs and either way, there’s no chance at the top talent in the draft so you never get out of the middle of the league. They kept trying to tweak their roster while drafting badly and it got them nowhere.
It took new ownership and a new general manager to change the philosophy of the franchise from try to win now to draft well and develop talent until that talent arrives and then pounce on NHL ready talent in free agency. That drafted talent is on the verge of making the NHL roster and there might not be a better time to go “ALL IN” on free agency.
It will say a ton about Chuck Fletcher and Craig Leipold if they get either Zach Parise or Ryan Suter, Fletcher for the sales job to get them and Leipold for putting up the money to sign the two best free agents available. Chuck Fletcher has a couple Stanley Cup rings from Anaheim in 2007 and Pittsburgh in 2009 so he has an idea of what it takes to win.
Anatomy Of A Free Agent
Players hit free agency after their contract expires and they are at least 27 years old or they have at least 7 years of service as an NHL player, depending on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The age a player can become a free agent went from 31 to 27 in the last CBA between 2005 and 2008.
How crazy is it to be the best player available when “the Frenzy” hits? The clock goes from 10:59am to 11:00am and your agent’s phone explodes, a call from every team in a matter of seconds and the fax machine (or email?) is pumping out contract offers for 10 minutes straight!
How do they make the decision of where to go? Is it all money? Money is great but when we’re talking $100 million, is that a big difference between $90 million? What can you do with $100 million that you can’t do with $90 million? Is anyone worth that kind of money? How does that change a player? Will they still play the same way or will they play as if they’ve made it and relax because they’ve almost literally won the lottery?
What is it like to get offers of employment from all 30 teams or at least most of the teams in the best league in the world for playing hockey and all or most of them exceed $100 million over 10 years or so. How many times would you pinch yourself to make sure this is really happening? How many of them would take a regular salary to play a game for a living?
What about family and location? Players have to uproot their whole family, move the kids to a different area and a different school. That has to be a part of the decision, right? Location? Do they know the area? Like the area? Is it a good place to live? Or does it even matter? Maybe they aren’t there that much during the season and they just have another home in their hometown?
Playing for your hometown team is usually a dream for almost every player. Their family and friends are there and it’s the team they grew up watching. They might not get another chance to play for their hometown team since elite players don’t hit free agency that often. If Zach Parise signs with a team other than the Minnesota Wild and it’s a 10-year deal, what are the chances the Wild would be interested when he’s 37-years old? It could be now or never. A trade could happen but the elite players usually get some type of no-trade clause that lets them have more control of where they can go and if a team can trade them or not.
Competitiveness? Would they rather join a team that has already had success or be the guy who makes a team a success by being the first guy to go there and change a team from pretender to contender? Would they rather join a team that already has great players or be the great player that entices other great players to join their team? Lebron James took a lot of…uhh…heat…for “taking his talents to South Beach.” He just won the NBA championship. Could he have done that in Cleveland?
Playing with greatness? How many players would’ve loved to have played with Wayne Gretzky and be a part of the Oiler dynasty? We might never see a dynasty like that again! Does playing with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins have that same feel to it? Or any other team in the NHL?
I have to believe Zach Parise and/or Ryan Suter have an idea of where they want to play. I’m sure they’ve gone over every team’s depth chart to see how they fit in the lineup and what their future looks like. They are familiar with at least one team and familiarity is nice but who doesn’t want to play for their hometown team or play for a team that always has a chance at winning it all?
Has some team jumped in and surprised both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter with an offer they didn’t expect? Hearing rumors of Chicago in on Parise that we haven’t heard before and Chicago wasn’t listed on the supposed “short” lists we’ve seen.
The biggest problem is getting all of these “reports” from so-called “sources” about what they’ve “heard.” How would anyone know about anything? Why would the agents or the player tell anyone what they are thinking? The only thing that would make any sense is if they were trying to increase the offers from one team to another but is that really happening? It’s hard to believe any team is trying to save money by not offering everything they can right out of the box.
We’ve heard it’s between Pittsburgh & Minnesota, then we hear Chicago has jumped into the mix and we hear the Wild is out then we hear from a more reliable source that there’s no decision yet. Meanwhile, the rest of the free agents don’t want to sign until the big dogs do to see what they can get from the teams that lose out.
So still we watch and we wait!
Whatever happens, it’s been a day where the Wild have competed with the best teams in the league for the best free agents and that’s something Wild fans haven’t seen before and that’s exciting! If they get neither player, how will Wild fans react?
So…ClutterPuckers, what do you think will happen? Do the Wild get Zach Parise or Ryan Suter? or both? or neither and have to go to a “plan B”? How will that affect your feelings about your Minnesota Wild?
Let us know what you think!!! GO WILD!
Other Links to the Free Agent Frenzy:
NHL should be weary of Justin Schultz loophole – NationalPost.com – Ken Warren – 6/27/2012
Everything You Need To Know About NHL Free Agency – Grantland.com – Sean McIndoe – 6/29/2012
2012 Sortable Free Agent Tracker – TSN.ca
@Russostrib – Michael Russo on Twitter
Russo’s Rants – StarTribune.com – Michael Russo – Minnesota Wild Beat Writer
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