Zach Parise : ''Lately, the hockey part has been difficult''

[sr edler]

Yeh and Calgary and Tampa Bay were sure fire contenders then look who won it, the team that was at one point dead last in the league. You have a decent team and you make the playoffs, your a contender.

Stop with this "dead last" nonsense now. They had a bunch of games in hand on the other teams and never trailed for a longer period of time and had been to the Conference Finals just three years prior with the exact same core group of players.

I don't think it's unreasonable for Suter & Parise imagining the Wild becoming contenders though when they signed those contracts, but it never happened, they just got stuck in nowhere nowhere land. Mainly because while Mikko Koivu is a good player he's probably not a 1C on a Cup winning team, and while Parise is a good player if he's your best forward you're not winning any Cups.

I don’t recall Minnesota ever really being considered a contender, especially considering they took the Canucks place as the Blackhawks playtoy.

At least the Canucks put up a decent fight/number of series against Chicago and even won a series against that team when they were defending champions and then went to the SCFs and had players winning two Art Rosses, one Hart Trophy and a Selke. The Wild never came close to anything similar. The Blues were probably a bigger threat to Chicago than Minny even when they were stuck with garbage like David Backes on their top lines.

 

[Its a Trap]

Yeh and Calgary and Tampa Bay were sure fire contenders then look who won it, the team that was at one point dead last in the league. You have a decent team and you make the playoffs, your a contender.

I don’t know what any of your post has to do with the Wild’s performance in the playoffs a half decade ago. Because during those years, there was no “anyone can win it”.

 

[StanleyCup55]

The Wild made a big mistake not signing a goal scorer. We haven't had a guy that can bury it since Gaborik. Everyone knew when we signed Parise and Suter that we still needed more help. You can't rely on all of your young prospects to pan out. It's amazing we didn't sign anyone else. Just always a bunch of "depth players".

 

[Khelandros]

Parise dragged that free agency out and milked it for everything. I don't feel bad for him one bit.

He signed on July 4. He doesn't control media speculation

In all fairness to Parise, when he was a free agent the Interview Period hadn't been introduced yet. He had 6 teams to talk to I believe, which would lead us to the July 4th signing.

 

[ref19]

Imagine comparing Zach Parise to Crosby and Kucherov.

Crosby is a grinder man. Parise was basically Kucherov (a top 3-5winger)