The joint signing of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise was the worst free agency acquisition the Minnesota Wild have ever made. Yeah. You read that right.
I get it. They’re Minnesota boys who used to put up big numbers and have big names. I was psyched when the Minnesota Wild signed them. No longer.
First, lets look at the contracts. 98 million dollars each. That’s a substantial chunk of change. But the money isn’t the biggest issue. It’s the length. We signed both of them to thirteen year deals. That’s a long time. Thirteen years ago, the first ever YouTube video was uploaded. That seems like ancient history by now.
They were both 28 years old at that time. We signed them until they were 41. That’s bananas. Only Jaromir Jagr can produce at that age (probably a result of that magnificent mullet). It was ridiculous to expect that much out of these two. This was a major lack of foresight on behalf of Chuck Fletcher.
This season, they are both salaried at $9M. Players being paid considerably less than that this year: Vladimir Tarasenko. Nathan MacKinnon. Nikita Kucherov. Anders Lee, a fellow Minnesotan, is earning $2M. He scored 40 goals last year.
Let’s talk about Ryan Suter. Yes, he is composed on the puck. He gets a lot of assists, and at first glance the stats are solid, if you don’t require him to score goals. But he is about as threatening to a forward as a damn gummy bear.
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If I was someone like Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, I would salivate over playing against him. He doesn’t step up and challenge the player with the puck. Not at all. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an NHL defenseman who loves to skate backward as much as Suter. He can’t be bothered to throw a hit. He refuses to even take a slapshot.
Look at a Drew Doughty type defenseman. He would suck to play against. Big-time. Suter is a cupcake who we are paying millions to sit back, eat clock, and make passes. And the “he plays smart” argument is irrelevant and invalid.
Doughty plays smart. Duncan Keith plays smart. Other “elite” defensemen play “smart” and still log huge minutes, throw huge hits, and disrupt the entire flow of the opposition’s attack. Suter just logs minutes.
I’m holding him to a high standard. Yes, he is better than Nick Seeler. But we’re paying Seeler less than a million annually. I expected a lot out of Suter, and he just hasn’t delivered. Not one bit.
Signing Zach Parise was just poor scouting. He was truly elite early in his career. 5 times before coming to Minny he scored 30+ goals in a season. Almost got to 50 once. But for a guy his size, with the gritty hockey he plays, our highly paid GM and extensive scouting staff should’ve realized how high-risk he was.
Since arrival, he’s been hurt a lot. Nagging pains, major injuries, they’ve both plagued his time with the Minnesota Wild. Every season has had injuries for him where he’s missed chunks of time. And it’s not like no one could’ve seen it coming. Very poor judgement to sign him for so long when he was already late-twenties.
Aside from the injuries, I like Zach. He fights hard, and inspires those around him to work hard. That’s something we really need. But we didn’t need it to come in the package of an overpaid, aging veteran who is too small for the ever-growing NHL. We are already a weak, physically unintimidating team. Parise, and Suter to an extent, just made it worse.
These signings were supposed to propel us into the later rounds of the playoffs. They didn’t. All it accomplished was raising our hopes and then dashing them over the cold, hard rocks called reality.
They aren’t good enough to merit what was given. That’s a fact. Another fact: the Minnesota Wild haven’t even come remotely close to a conference final, much less a Cup.
The loyalty Wild fans have to these two is embarrassing. This signing was a failure. In my opinion, clearly the worst in team history. I hope they prove me wrong this season, but I have major doubts.