NHL trade rumors: Minnesota Wild are shopping Zach Parise

According to the latest NHL trade rumors, the Minnesota Wild are open to moving Zach Parise. Doing so, however, will be complicated.

The Minnesota Wild have been one of the more interesting NHL teams in 2019. They became sellers at the trade deadline, moving Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle for younger pieces. The Wild have come close to trading Jason Zucker no fewer than two times, once to the Calgary Flames and once to the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to the latest NHL trade rumors, the Wild are now open to moving Zach Parise.

This report comes from The Athletic (subscription required). General Manager Paul Fenton has reportedly put Parise on the trade block and had discussions about him at the draft. Though anyone can be traded, it will be very hard to trade him.

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The main issue is Parise’s contract. He is 35 years old and has six years left on his contract, which has an annual cap hit of $7.538 million. Parise also has a no-movement clause, which gives him a ton of leverage.

He does, however, sound at least open to a change in scenery because he wants to win. However, who’s going to want Parise? His contract in itself is a no-movement clause.

To Parise’s credit, he has been productive when healthy. Since the start of his contract, he has produced like a top-six forward as far as points per game.

The problem is Parise has had issues staying healthy. It’s hard to see this issue getting better as he gets older. In fact, it will most likely get worse.

To trade Parise, the Wild will likely have to retain a good portion of his contract or take on a bad contract. If Minnesota is hoping to continue to contend, it will make it quite hard to find a suitable return for him.

Trading Parise would likely signify the end of an era for the Wild. They signed Ryan Suter and Parise to long-term deals they knew would eventually look bad in hopes of winning the Stanley Cup. Both deserve credit for being as good as advertised. But the era of Parise and Suter is coming to an end.

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Now might be the best time to move him. Parise’s likely getting worse as he gets older. He just scored 28 goals during the 2018-19 season. Parise’s value will never be higher than it is right now. The Wild would have to take on money, whether it’s retained salary or via another bad contract, but trading him isn’t going to get any easier moving forward. Why not now?

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