With Ryan Suter and Zach Parise now members of the Minnesota Wild, the NHL is stunned on the Fourth of July. These two signings represent a huge upset win for Minnesota and it has people asking how in the world they managed to pull it off.
There are obvious reasons, of course, beginning with Parise wanting to go back home and the fact that they were both offered enormous 13-year deals. On Wednesday, though, it came out that they had a little help from the baseball team in town, via James Schmehl of mlive.com:
Prior to Wednesday's game, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and All-Star catcher Joe Mauer admitted to filming a video intended to lure forward Zach Parise to the Minnesota Wild.
Mauer reportedly made a recruiting video earlier in the week for free-agent defenseman Ryan Suter, too.
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"It's exciting," Mauer said of the signings. "It's exciting news."
One would think that the $98 million each stand to earn on his deal had more to do with where the NHL's top free agents decided to play than any recruiting video, but it's a nice gesture and it certainly didn't hurt.
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