One of the big news items during Monday’s NHL Trade Deadline was an apparent trade that was about to go down between the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild. The deal would have seen veteran forward Zach Parise go to New York islanders while struggling forward Andrew Ladd would have come back to Minnesota. It was a deal that was more about money than anything else but it never came to pass.
Why?
Michael Russo of The Athletic notes that this is not the first time these two teams have talked about a deal for Parise.
Russo writes:
According to multiple sources, Parise met with Fenton (former Wild GM) last June, voiced his unhappiness and also told him he’d be willing to move to another organization if Fenton found the right situation. His preferred destination has always been the Islanders, sources say. Lamoriello, who drafted Parise 17th overall with the Devils in 2003, tried to trade for Parise last summer, but the Wild were unable to put the pieces together.
source – ‘Wild’s Zach Parise trade talks with Isles break apart at deadline (UPDATE)’ Michael Russo – The Athletic – 02/24/2020
With that news, seemingly, one of the tricky parts of the deal was already done in that Parise was willing to move on. So too, Ladd had agreed to waive his no-movement clause to allow the deal to happen. The other part of the deal was the financial portion.
With Parise signed through 2024-25 an carrying with him an annual average value of over $7.5 million, there was bound to be salary retained by the Wild. It wasn’t that Ladd’s deal was inexpensive either. He has three years remaining at $5.5-million.
Did Lou Get Cold Feet?
Some have even speculated that the moment the trade was broken by Frank Seravalli on TSN, it was dead in the water. Apparently, Lou Lamoriello is not a fan of completing trades after they’ve become public knowledge and with everyone on TSN and Sportsnet was talking about it before the two teams were able to get it done, that didn’t sit well with Lou.
Reports are that Lamoriello has a history of backing out of deals and Russo also noted in his article that Bill Geurin told Parise as much. ‘Don’t tell anyone’ was the conversation. ‘Lou will back out if he finds out.’
But, this deal may not be completely toast. TwinCities.com scribe Dane Mizutani reports Guerin said there’s a chance the Wild and Islanders could revisit trade talks this summer.
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