It has been six years since the dual signings of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to identical 13 year $98 million deals.

It was interesting if anyone was listening to KFAN today as they replayed the moment that Michael Russo, then of the Star Tribune broke the news via Twitter on July 4th 2012.

It was almost comical listening to the lead-up to the breaking news as the topic of the day was the Vikings who were coming off a 3-13 season. The hot topics were their recent draft choices and believe it or not a kicker named Blair Walsh who they could see lining up and making some key field goals in the playoffs up coming.

As if that wasn't funny enough they talked of the new franchise QB, Christian Ponder and the TE duo of John Carlson and Kyle Rudolph rivaling the Patriots duo of Gronkowski and Hernandez.

Then the breaking news of the day, the Minnesota Wild had signed Ryan Suter and Zach Parise!!!

The talk changed to this being a game changer, and that Wild GM, Chuck Fletcher, was a genius of epic proportion. They went on to say that Fetcher had just finished fleecing Sharks GM, Doug Wilson, sending Brent Burns to San Jose, for Devin Setoguchi and Charlie Coyle, along with a first round pick.

So as you can see that none of the above turned out anywhere near what KFAN mid-day host, Dan Cole, and co-host Brandon Mileski had predicted.

In fact one can argue that pretty much the opposite of all of the above would later occur.

From the clank of the upright of Blair Walsh, to the floundering of Christian Ponder and of course the whole Hernandez fiasco in New England. They did have half the equation right on Kyle Rudolph though. And yea, what about that Brent Burns fleecing.....hmmmm. Oh and Chuck Fletcher being immortalized as the greatest GM in Minnesota sports history.

Oh and to add insult to injury, they went on about how Alex Ovechkin is not a leader and he will NEVER win a Stanley Cup.

It made for some excellent entertainment nonetheless, but it just goes to show that we know very little when it comes to what is going to happen moving forward.

Now getting to the Wild and Suter and Parise six years later. No one can argue that both #20 and #11 have been very good ever since their arrival in Minnesota, delivering six straight playoff performances.

As far as the supporting cast, they have been good, but not good enough to push the Wild on to a deep playoff run.

The dollars and length of the Suter/Parise deals are often brought up as holding the Wild back. I would beg to differ on that as both Suter and Parise have been highly productive players for the Wild.

Yes Parise has had his share of injury issues, but he was enormous down the stretch and was their best player in the first round series before he broke his sternum in game 3.

Suter is recovering from the first major injury of his career. There are questions as to how he will be once he can put weight on his surgically repaired ankle and get back on skates. It is a legitimate fear, but this is Ryan Suter, not your average everyday guy.

Suter is farmboy strong and as hard a worker as you will ever find in the league. If their is a player that is able to come back from this type of injury it is Ryan Suter without a doubt.

Now how long it will take him to get into game shape, and up to full speed is another question altogether. Will he still be able to handle his 25-30 minutes a night, and play in every situation? That is another story, and one that Boudreau will have to address as the situation presents itself.

So the criticism of the Suter and Parise deals is overstated to say the least. The Wild cap issues stem from how the team was constructed under Chuck Fletcher. Fletcher believed he could acquire the missing pieces primarily for draft choices which limited the amount of youth and entry level contracts being infused into the Wild lineup offsetting the higher priced players.

Paul Fenton now enters the scene with the task of fixing the issues of an underachieving team.

Many expected him to make at least one trade by now, or make a bigger splash in free agency to sort of announce his presence as the Wild GM.

Well that has not happened, and by all accounts it is not that Fenton did not explore his options, he just could not find the right deal. That is important, as the Wild are a playoff team with the current core.

The issue is once the playoffs arrive the Wild have not been good enough to win in the postseason.

But to make trades for the sake of trades is not good either. Going back to the radio show from six years ago. The hosts were not the only one's that had those views of what was going to materialize in the future of Minnesota sports. They were just voicing the opinions of the masses.

So if we look at the opinions of the masses (meaning the Wild fan base) they are largely disappointed in the fact that the Wild roster is essentially the same one that we saw leave the ice in Winnipeg back in April.

The sentiment is that the Wild have done nothing to make themselves better and it is more of the same old same old with this team.

Just remember none of us knows what the future will bring. The Wild have a solid playoff roster as it stands today. Yes Paul Fenton will be exploring his options to upgrade the personnel for sure, but not at the expense of risking a poor deal.

This very well may be the group that the Wild begin the season with, and that is absolutely fine. Remember that nothing can be won in October.

What happens if Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter get off to hot starts and their trade value increases. Or any one of the others that have been mentioned. The return that Fenton could get then increases significantly. What about injuries around the league? Or worse internally for the Wild.

They change the landscape of player movement out of necessity. So holding onto assets now, unless the return is significant makes the most sense.

Paul Fenton has a track record of success in this league, and he has a plan to achieve success with the Minnesota Wild. Keep in mind that we all have 20/20 hindsight vision, and can point out the awful transactions that have occurred with the Wild in the past. It takes conviction to make trades in the NHL, if one plans to be successful.

Fenton has shown us his conviction is to make the Wild better and that he is not here to make a trade just for the sake of making a bad deal.

Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17

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