A Wild Ending to the Zach Parise Saga - Wall Street Journal

By MIKE SIELSKI

For months, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter volleyed text messages back and forth about the possibility of their playing together for the Minnesota Wild. The pair are longtime friends and natives of the Midwestâ€"Parise is from Minneapolis; Suter, from Madison, Wis.â€"and as free agents this off-season, they understood that they could package themselves to the same franchise, just as LeBron James and Chris Bosh did in signing with the NBA's Miami Heat.

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During his tenure with the Devils, Zach Parise rose to become the team's captain and one of the NHL's best all-around forwards.

So after Parise spent seven seasons playing for the Devils and two and a half days weighing his options as a free agent, his desire to play in his home state and with his buddyâ€"not to mention an eye-popping contract offer from the Wildâ€"was too strong a pull for him to resist. He agreed Wednesday to a 13-year, $98-million contract with Minnesota, ending his career with the Devils five weeks after helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

"The opportunity to play at home, it really meant a lot to me," said Parise, whose father, J.P., spent 14 years in the NHL, including eight with the Minnesota North Stars. "It meant a lot to my family. My parents were so excited when I said I was considering coming back home. That played a big part."

During his tenure with the Devils, Parise rose to become the team's captain and one of the NHL's best all-around forwards, collecting eight goals and 15 points during this year's postseason as New Jersey won its first Eastern Conference championship since 2003. He scored 31 or more goals five times, including a career-high 45 in 2008-09, and starred on the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team.

Suter, formerly of the Nashville Predators, was the top defenseman on the NHL's free-agent market and signed a deal of identical length and dollars, and he and Parise are now charged with re-energizing a moribund franchise in a hockey-crazed region. The Wild has not reached the playoffs since 2008.

"We shot for the moon and tried our best," Minnesota general manager Chuck Fletcher said, "and fortune smiled on us."

Despite weeks of speculation about where he might end up, Parise said Wednesday that, had he not elected to sign with the Wild, he would have returned to New Jersey. "I'm a loyal person," he said. "I loved playing there."

His admission, of course, was of small consolation to Lou Lamoriello, the Devils' president and general manager, who did not negotiate with Parise's agent, Wade Arnott, during the 2011-12 season but was in constant contact with him once the league's free-agency period began at noon on Sunday.

"There's no question you're disappointed," said Lamoriello, who made what he called a "competitive offer" to Parise. "It's a very unfortunate thing. Zach Parise, you never replace."

Though he did not offer Suter a contract, Lamoriello said he did reach out to him to gauge his interest in playing for the Devils, but Suter was committed to remaining within the Western Conference. Having already re-signed goaltender Martin Brodeur and defenseman Bryce Salvador this week, Lamoriello declined to reveal what course of action he might adopt to try to make up for Parise's departure.

"This isn't a situation that Lou is unaccustomed to," said NHL analyst Craig Button, former general manager of the Calgary Flames. "He's lost Scott Niedermayer. He's lost Scott Stevens. Lou's an extremely smart man, and he'll ask himself, 'What do I have to do to position my team to compete in the East?'"

Write to Mike Sielski at mike.sielski@wsj.com