Revisiting the Two Most Important Signings in Minnesota Wild History

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Minnesota Wild, Ryan Suter #20 and Zach Parise #11. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

In the eight years that Parise and Suter have been members of the Minnesota Wild, they have been in the playoffs six times, it will be seven this season if the Wild can beat the Vancouver Canucks in the “Play-In Series” (read more on that series here) with the winner of the series moving on to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Starting with Zach Parise (2012-2015)

From 2012-2015, Zach Parise was elite offensively and still brought positive value defensively. He was playing at an elite level, exactly what the Wild had desired to receive from Parise. Parise was effectively scoring, creating offense, and was efficiently preventing offense in his own end.

Zach Parise (2016-2019)

From 2016-2019, Parise was still consistently good offensively, but his defense has suffered. Even now, Parise’s defense has frankly not been very good. It could be signs of regression where he needs to sacrifice his defense to still produce at a good enough level offensively, or it could just be a couple of difficult defensive years.

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Parise has accumulated 192 goals, 190 assists for a total of 382 points. Parise also has 14 goals, 17 assists, and 31 points in 36 playoff games.

Zach Parise is known for his gritty play around the net where he sacrifices his body to make plays over and over, he is a hard forechecker and is an unbelievable deflector, with his hand-eye coordination near next to none.

Parise on average misses 10-15 games each season due mostly to injuries. Although Parise has dealt with a lot of injuries, when he is on the ice, he is an elite player and one of the best for the Wild.

There are so many good moments since Parise became a member of the Minnesota Wild. One of the best was the hat trick against Colorado where Parise’s first goal was after he got leveled, nothing more applicable than the “Take a hit to make a play”.

What about Parise’s game-tying goal against the Blues in game one where Parise scored with 22.7 seconds left to send it to overtime? (where the Blues eventually won thanks to Jake Allen who had 50 saves, but we don’t talk about that.)

Although, never forget Parise’s game-tying goal in the 2010 Olympics Gold Medal Game.

Parise, a gifted goal scorer, has so many big game goals. Parise is one of the best in the league as well when it comes to his unbelievable deflections from impossible angles.

Even though his defense has suffered in the past several seasons, Parise is still a consistent goal scorer and provides positive value and is an impactful player for the Wild.

Ryan Suter (2012-2015)

From 2012-2014, Suter struggled, but he finally got his game back in 2015. Although he was still producing in terms of points, Suter still struggled offensively and defensively.

Ryan Suter (2016-2019)

Analytically, Suter has been phenomenal since 2016, has been effectively creating offense, meanwhile still preventing offense in his own end.

Suter has amassed 52 goals and 298 assists for 350 points in his tenure with the Wild to date. He also has 2 goals and 14 assists for 16 points in 39 playoff games.

Suter is known for being an offensive defenseman, powerplay specialist, logging north of 25 minutes a night, and being a shut-down defender. While I can’t agree with this for his whole tenure as a member of the Wild, he has fit that description since 2015.

He has received criticism, for his lack of physicality, there are positives and negatives to Suter’s style of play. It is good to have a shut-down type defenseman like Suter and a physical type defenseman like Dumba.

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