Parise Signs in Montreal
- Updated: August 9, 2016
In a surprise move the Montreal Canadiens have signed forward Zach Parise to a 1 year $3.65million contract.
Parise’s rights were traded to the Philadelphia Flyers just prior to the opening of free agency and it was largely expected he would be a part of their team this coming season. The Canadiens however had a different idea, offering up an eye watering $24million signing bonus for just one season of his services – a move that has been met with much negativity around the league.
Parise, 31, played a big part for Colorado last year finishing the regular season with 26 goals and 52 points in 79 games. It was originally believed that the Habs GM may of just been fishing for a buyout by going big for him in round one, a theory confirmed by the Flyers Nick Somers.
“Trevor [Habs GM] and I had discussed a buyout. I offered $3M. He countered asking for $5M and a little speech on what a favor he did me by running the price up so much that I only had him to buyout.” [sic]
Although negotiations did continue past this point, they eventually broke down due to circumstances that we cannot divulge for legal reasons. This then ended in Montreal’s overpayment which may have been a retaliation for not getting the buyout they wanted.
The Flyers still have plenty of time to remedy the loss of Parise though, and ultimately the team will still be a contender even without him. Somers himself is also remaining very positive about the situation despite this bitter loss.
“This leaves me with some work to do this off season. With or without Parise we will have a pretty good group of forwards for next season, but his salary and scoring would have been a nice fit on my second line. Moving forward with my off season I will look at other options to fill that hole on my second line. There seems to be some solid top 6 options on the trade market and there are still some interesting options in UFA.”
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