Have you been paying attention to the NHL Playoffs? It has been a great playoff season so far with some very exciting games that have gone into OT combined with a bunch of series that have gone the full 7 games but at the same time, the Devils aren’t in it. It is certainly a weird feeling. Its not the the Devils have had deep runs in recent years because they haven’t but usually once the Devils go out, I pay more attention to the team that knocked them out. I can always justify losing to a team if they end up being the team that lifts the cup.
The real problem with the Devils players spending their time being Dads, fishing, golfing, etc is that the lack of Devils news really hurts this site. So lets spend today talking about Zach Parise because the rumor mill has been working overtime this week when it comes to the future of Zach Parise and the NJ Devils.
NJ.com ran a story the other day that seemed to make readers believe that Lou and company were leaning towards taking Parise to arbitration instead of trying to sign a long term deal. The problem with the article, or at least the way it is written is that NJ.com appears to be making articles out of nothing really.
Yes, arbitration is a realistic possibility for Parise. The Devils would get to keep Parise on the Devils for what would probably be a low price because of his injury last season and give the Devils an extra year to sign him long term. The Devils have money coming off the books next summer and probably would fit Parise in a little easier. The problem with arbitration is that no one ever wins that game, the players usually end up feeling like crap because a GM can’t go into that glowing about the player no matter how important he is. Most the time, I’d imagine that arbitration breaks a player/GM relationship and usually ends with that player signing elsewhere once UFA comes around.
I do hope the Devils sign Parise long term but to be running an article about going to arbitration at this stage in the game is rediculous. It is April 26th, no team is really thinking about signing guys at the moment. The teams that are home are probably letting their players lick their wounds for another few weeks and then getting back down to business once the time is right. I have no doubt that Lou want Parise to stay, that he would love to sign him long term. If Lou feels arbitration is the right route for Parise at this time, it is his call. I certainly hope if he does, that Parise finds away to deal with the disappointment of arbitration and ends up staying in NJ next summer. If Lou and Zach strike a deal this summer, great. Bottom line, it is April and now really isn’t the time to speculate what is going on in Lou’s mind when it comes to Zach Parise.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
