Wild Buying Our Zach Parise, Ryan Suter

The Minnesota Wild are making a bold pair of moves to kick off their offseason by buying out the contracts of longtime players Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, according to The Athletics’ Michael Russo.

Parise, 36, and Suter, 36, joined the Wild close to a decade ago, each inking 13-year deals worth around $98 million contracts, and have been franchise cornerstones and building blocks ever since. Their buyouts take place with close to four years left on their deals and will immediately make them two of the top free agents on the market.

According to the report: “The Wild will pay each $6.7 million over the next eight years and be charged with $2.371 million, $6.371 million and $7.371 million cap hits in the next four years, respectively, for each, then $833,333 cap hits the four years after that for each.

This gives the Wild another $10.33 million in cap space to play with this summer.”

The Wild are clearly focusing on bringing in and developing younger players for the future.