I know I talk a lot about the Minnesota Wild, but they’ve been making a lot of news as of late. This latest news I had to talk about and that is the buyout of both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The news came as quite a shock to many Wild fans including myself.

The buyouts came about a week before the Seattle Expansion Draft was to take place and many believe that played a major factor in the decisions. With the two of them gone the Wild could protect two other players. Parise and Suter both had no-movement clauses so they had to be protected in the draft if they didn’t agree to waive their no-movements.

When I first heard the news, I was in shock but mainly because it involved both Parise and Suter. To be completely honest, I was expecting the Wild to find out how to part ways with Parise but Suter is what caught me truly off guard. The reason I thought the Wild would move on from Parise was mostly due to this last season.

Parise had one of the worst seasons he’s had in nearly 10 years and wasn’t getting along the greatest with the coaching staff. He made a decision during the season that had him sitting out a game. Following that game, it seemed like everything was smoothed out. Then fast forward to the post-season and he missed out on the first three games of the playoffs, without a spoken reason. During the offseason it seemed as though Parise would be returning next season but as we all found out, that was not the case.

Suter’s season wasn’t the greatest but he was still a very valuable defenseman. It was assumed he would be finishing his career out and his contract out in Minnesota. From all the articles and news, I’ve heard about the whole situation, Suter was caught completely off guard and was not happy about the situation.

No one can blame either player for being frustrated when they are both 36 years old and wanted to finish out their careers near their homes. I, myself, in a personal standpoint, am bummed that this season would be the last one where I see Parise and Suter in their Wild jerseys. I liked both of them because they were basically the franchise faces for the last nine years, especially Parise.

On the flipside, looking at it from a business standpoint, the Wild had to do something. They were carrying those two huge contracts with very little to no room for extra players to sign. They were able to sign Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year contract but Kevin Fiala and Kirill Kaprizov have yet to be signed.

They also were stuck with protecting two players for the draft with the risk of losing a player that could be part of their future. As hard as it is to say, Suter and Parise were not going to be part of the Wild’s long-term future and something had to be done. I said I was truly shocked about Suter but looking into the future as far as contracts go, the Wild had to do it now or risk paying even more depending on the outcomes of their careers.

As far as the future of the Wild, they need to sign my man Kaprizov to a nice long-term deal because he is going to be their future. Obviously, he needs players alongside him but what he did this year alone was pretty impressive and he won the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year. They just need to get him to agree to a deal.

In summary, the Wild buyouts were shocking due to the timing but also most people had a feeling something was going to happen. The Wild had to unload those giant contracts and this was their only option where they didn’t lose more than they already did. They also had to think of the other players on the team that needed contracts and what direction they want the team to be headed in. It may be a bummer but in the long run the Wild did what they had to do. Hopefully Parise and Suter will land on teams that will be good fits for them both and all of us Wild fans thank them for all they did for our team.