Fox 9 Sports Now: Jim Rich talks Minnesota Wild hockey with Lou Nanne

Sunday night on Fox 9 Sports Now, Jim Rich sat down with Lou Nanne to talk about the Minnesota Wild buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota Wild shook up the hockey landscape last week when General Manager Bill Guerin announced the team would buy out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

Parise and Suter signed identical 13-year, $98 million deals on July 4, 2012, and each had four years left on their contracts. It marks the end of an era for Wild hockey, and with Parise being a healthy scratch multiple times this season, that decision didn’t come as a huge surprise. But the decision to buy out Suter was a shocker.

Part 2: Jim Rich talks Minnesota Wild hockey with Lou Nanne

Sunday night on Fox 9 Sports Now, Jim Rich talked with Lou Nanne about the Minnesota Wild buying out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, and the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft.

Sunday night on Fox 9 Sports Now, Sports Director Jim Rich sat down with local hockey legend Lou Nanne to talk about the buyouts, and where the Wild go from here. The Wild made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in eight of the nine seasons with Parise and Suter on the ice, but never made it past the Western Conference Semifinals.

"It tells me this guy has got a great strength of character," Nanne told Rich on Guerin buying out both contracts. "A lot of general managers couldn’t make this move, and you really have to believe in yourself and your character strength to make this decision. The general manager has to make the decision of what’s best for the hockey club. In his mind, that’s what he was doing. Time will tell whether he is right or wrong."

Watch both videos for Jim Rich’s full interview with Lou Nanne.