Minnesota Wild Land Parise and Suter

It's an exciting time to be a Wild fan. Both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter have signed 13 year deals worth 98 million each to play for the land of 10,000 lakes. And consider that bold a correction to all the writers who thought Minnesota only had a mere 1,000: You fools! It seemed like only yesterday that I was hearing about how certain it was that Parise was going to be a Penguin and how they'd go on to dominate the entire NHL. But now, Suter and Parise are just overrated nobodies who were only out for a payday — according to all the jaded fans who don't even care that they actually took less money to play for Minnesota.

Both Parise and Suter are Midwestern boys. If you're from Wisconsin, you're pretty familiar with Minnesota and still close to home. Hell, Suter's wife is from Bloomington, Minnesota. And Zach is a Minnesotan through and through; his father was even a North Star, and his family still lives there.

And it's the state of hockey not because of its NHL team's renown (although that is going to change), It's because of the high school and college programs. Minnesota produces / has produced more professional hockey players than any other state — and Minnesota has a fraction of the population than most. It's the "state of hockey" because its actually played there! Even Sidney Crosby played hockey in Faribault.

The ESPN boards are raging right now. One Detroit fan even claimed that St. Paul / Minneapolis were just as downtrodden and forlorn as his home city. To evoke this sort of ridiculousness out of people, to me, means that the Wild have really taken a leap in relevance.

The NHL fans should be afraid. Any casual watcher probably didn't see the strides the Wild made last year, focusing more on all the injuries and poor mid season play. And they probably didn't pay attention to the draft. But we didn't just add Parise to the offense. We added Granlund this offseason, too! And in case you're not familiar with him, here are some highlights.

Parise, Heatley, Koivu, and Granlund should combine for a lot of goals this next season. However, I don't know what is to be expected. I think the X factors are Koivu's health and how Granlund fairs in his rookie season. But if all goes as expected, they could very well be cup contenders. And in the very least, they'll be in the playoffs.