Minnesota gets the 2 best available FREE AGENTS.

I guess the NHL isn't in a recession like the rest of us who are scraping by. Today Parise and Suter BOTH sign with Minnesota!!! Both get $98 million over 13 long years. A cap hit of $7.538 million. 


This is insane. People are asking, "Why Minnesota?" 
1. No one goes to Minnesota except for the cash. 
2. I guess Parise is from Minnesota and his parents still live there and his fiancée is from North Dakota and they are getting married this summer. 
3. Darren Dreger tweeted, "Wild players ecstatic. Heatley says he spoke with Suter 2 nights ago and swapped texts with Parise. Both asked: can we win. Answer: yes."
Okay honestly, what's Heatley going to say? We have no chance in Minnesota even if you come! haha


Are these guys over paid? Oh yeah! If Parise and Suter get this much $ how much more would Malkin, Giroux, or Stamkos get if they hit the open market? 


And another thing...they are 13 LONG year contracts. Both players are 27 so they will be 40 when the contracts end. Good for the player bad for the team if they are mediocre. Look at the troubles Vancouver has in moving Luongo with that long term contract. 


Good for Minnesota though. Supposedly Detroit offered Suter 90 million over 10 years but he wanted the more $. They didn't draft their core the bought their core. Parise and Suter are SOLID all star players. So this greatly improves the Wild who need to start competing in a strong West. LA proved what you can do if you just make the playoffs. So hats off to the Wild. 


NHL.com pointed out that this helps there offense.
Parise joins a forward group that already includes Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley, Devin Setoguchi and Matt Cullen. Mikael Granlund is considered one of Minnesota's top prospects that could make the team this coming season.
But Suter helps their Def and Backstrom is a good goalie who just got better with Suter's help. 


This is bad for the Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Avalanche, NJ and Nashville. Obviously the GM's for NJ and Nashville are extremely disappointed. NHL.com did a great article on this and reported the reaction from both GM's:
NJ GM Lamoriello:
"There is no question we're disappointed. It's a very unfortunate thing when you have a player of his stature that has come right through the ranks and at this given time a decision is made to go elsewhere. Right now there is nothing we can do about that and we'll just go forward. Our offer was competitive and we did not at any time have a phone call that we needed to change it or it had to go up. So, it was competitive."


Nashville GM Poile: 
"Ryan has told me in every conversation that money was the not the most important criteria," Poile said in a teleconference with reporters. "He told me today that our offer was substantial. He told me it was not about the money when it came to the final decision. As I said to him, and this was all the things that we had talked about, I said, 'I don't know why you are not signing with us,' and he told me it was for family reasons. I guess that is where the disappointment comes in. I know family is important in all this. I can't fight that or argue with that. The disappointing part is that is not what we talked about all year long. I think we met Ryan's desires and criteria on every front and so today is very, very disappointing."


Insane transaction. LONG contracts. Over paid. But probably for the city of Minnesota and the buzz they are getting worth every penny.